Despite Bush’s re-election most Americans believe the Iraq war was a mistake, polls show. According to the numbers collected by the Washington Post/ABC News poll, 55% of Americans consider that the war was not worth fighting, with 44% disagreeing with them.

ABC poll results echo those obtained by the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll where 52% of the respondents believed that the Iraq invasion was a mistake, against 47% who were supporting the decision.

In Washington Post/ABC News poll, Bush got negative grades on his performance in a lot of critical spheres: the percentage of those who disapproved of his stance on economy was 52%, 55% are displeased with Bush’s efforts on social security, 58% are not happy with President’s work on budget deficit, and 54% and 51% are critical on his actions on immigration and health care respectively.

Nevertheless, 45% of the Americans who participated in the Washington Post/ABC poll said they would like Bush to continue with the direction in which he is leading the country while 39% want to take a Democratic course. This is a narrower lead than the one Bush had in the first months after he was elected – 46% over 36%.

The US citizens are optimistic. 55% say they expect George W. Bush to do a better job in his second term than he did in the first.

The priorities for George W. Bush in his second term should be Iraq and terrorism, says the public opinion, supported by six Americans out of ten, and over the half respectively.