Majority of Americans say US on wrong track

US congress building

Americans are divided along racial lines but agree that the United States is on the wrong track and the economy is the top priority, according to an opinion poll conducted by USA Today, ABC News and Columbia University released yesterday.

Eighty percent of blacks and Hispanics and 76 percent of whites surveyed said the economy should be the next president's highest priority.

Seventy-eight percent of all respondents said the country was on the wrong track. Broken down along racial lines, 77 percent of whites held that view, 91 percent of blacks and 74 percent of Hispanics.

However, the survey finds a sharp racial divide over who the next president will be.

Seven in 10 blacks expect Barack Obama, the first African American to be nominated for president by a major party, to defeat Senator John McCain in the Nov 4 election, the poll found.

Among registered voters, blacks support Democratic presidential nominee Obama by 92 percent to 4 percent. Hispanics back the Illinois senator by 57 percent to 33 percent.

Whites support Republican nominee McCain by 56 percent to 36 percent, the poll found.

Among the 13 percent of blacks who predict McCain will prevail, racism was the reason most often cited.

The 50 percent of whites who expect the Arizona senator to win were more likely to cite the candidates' levels of experience as the reason. Only 5 percent of whites who say McCain will win say racism is the key factor.

The telephone survey was conducted between September 11-14, just before news hit of the scale of the economic crisis that has prompted the Bush administration to propose a massive bailout plan for Wall Street.

The poll's margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points.

美國(guó)廣播公司（ABC News）和哥倫比亞大學(xué)昨日公布的一項(xiàng)民意調(diào)查顯示，美國(guó)人雖有種族之分，但多數(shù)美國(guó)人一致認(rèn)為美國(guó)現(xiàn)行的國(guó)家路線不正確，而且經(jīng)濟(jì)應(yīng)該是國(guó)家的頭等大事。

該項(xiàng)由《今日美國(guó)》開(kāi)展的調(diào)查顯示，80%的黑人和西班牙裔以及76%的白人認(rèn)為，經(jīng)濟(jì)應(yīng)是下任總統(tǒng)需考慮的首要問(wèn)題。

調(diào)查顯示，78%的受訪者認(rèn)為國(guó)家走錯(cuò)了方向。關(guān)于“路線”問(wèn)題的看法種族分歧并不明顯，分別有77%的白人、91%的黑人和74%的西班牙裔持這一觀點(diǎn)。

但有關(guān)誰(shuí)將成為下任總統(tǒng)問(wèn)題的看法卻存在明顯分歧。

民調(diào)顯示，70%的黑人受訪者認(rèn)為民主黨候選人奧巴馬能在11月4日的大選中戰(zhàn)勝共和黨候選人約翰•麥凱恩，成為美國(guó)下任總統(tǒng)。奧巴馬是美國(guó)歷史上首位被主要政黨提名的非裔總統(tǒng)候選人。

此外，奧巴馬和麥凱恩在黑人注冊(cè)選民中的支持率分別為92%和4%，在西班牙裔中分別為57%和33%。

而在白人選民中，麥凱恩和這位伊利諾斯州議員的支持率分別為56%和36%。

在13%預(yù)測(cè)麥凱恩將贏得大選的黑人受訪者看來(lái)，種族是決定競(jìng)選結(jié)果的主要因素。

而50%支持這位亞利桑那州議員的白人受訪者則認(rèn)為，候選人的經(jīng)驗(yàn)是主要因素，僅有5%的人認(rèn)為種族最重要。

這項(xiàng)電話調(diào)查于本月11日至14日開(kāi)展，此后美國(guó)便遭受了華爾街金融危機(jī)的重襲，為了應(yīng)對(duì)危機(jī)，布什政府提出了一項(xiàng)龐大的金融救助計(jì)劃。

該調(diào)查的誤差率為正負(fù)2%。