Poll: Racial, partisan differences on direction of country

Since Barack Obama became President, African Americans have become markedly more optimistic than whites about the direction of the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

The percentage of African Americans satisfied with the direction of the country has shot up from 10% to 47% since Obama was inaugurated. That compares to a 7% increase--from 15% to 22%--among whites.

But is this difference due to a race or simple partisan politics? The answer is a little bit of both:

Today, 38% of white Democrats say they are satisfied with the direction of the country, up from 5% in June/July 2008 -- a 33-point gain. By contrast, 51% of black Democrats today are satisfied, up from 7% -- a 44-point gain. (There are too few black Republicans to enable the same trend analysis by race for Republicans.)

So Democrats in general have become more optimistic. But the shift among black Democrats is slightly higher than white Democrats.

(Only 10% of Republicans, by contrast, are satisfied with the direction of the country.)