Gallup polling: Everyone except Democrats is feeling unusually optimistic about US direction right now. By David Freddoso.

According to Gallup, Americans’ satisfaction with their country’s direction is at a 12-year high at 38 percent. That’s the highest level since September 2005, right around the time Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and sent this measure of national sentiment plummeting.

What’s more, nearly every group that Gallup breaks out in its analysis — men and women, all age groups and all education levels — was significantly more positive on the country’s direction when polled in May and June than they were in surveys from March and April. Republicans jumped 14 points to 68 percent satisfied with the nation’s direction, and independents jumped 11 points to 36 percent satisfied.

The one group that remains as sour on America’s direction as before is self-identified Democrats, unchanged from their meager 13 percent level of optimism. …

Things are going well, the economy is growing, unemployment is down, and nobody pays attention to (the almost uniformly negative) political journalism …