Two out of three Americans say country going wrong

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two out of three Americans think the country is on the wrong track, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.

Only 22 percent of Americans think the country is moving in the right direction, while 66 percent think it's on the wrong track, the poll of 1004 adults taken April 20-23 showed.

That compared with 58 percent who saw the country heading down the wrong track and 25 percent who saw it moving in the right direction in a NBC/WSJ poll taken in March.

NBC News said the poll numbers point to one compelling reason why that should be the case: the war in Iraq.

Asked if the situation in Iraq has improved, deteriorated or stayed the same over the last three months, just 12 percent said it had improved while 49 percent said things were getting worse. Some 37 percent saw no change in the situation.

Asked if the war could still be won, 55 percent said it could not while 36 percent said it could.

And some 56 percent of those polled backed Democratic efforts to impose a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops, while 37 percent shared President George W. Bush's view that no deadline should be set by politicians in Washington.