CNN poll: 70 percent of Americans say things are going badly

There is not much more to say about this CNN story:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The vast majority of Americans think things are going badly in the country, according to a new poll.

Seven in 10 people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say things are going badly, with only 30 percent saying things are going well.

"It's been 16 years since the public gave the country's condition such a bad rating: January 1992, to be precise, in the last year in office of the last president named Bush," CNN pollster Keating Holland said.

"Seventy percent is a lot worse than two years ago, when 48 percent thought times were bad and the Republicans lost control of Congress," CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider added.

The poll indicates that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain fares poorly against either Democratic candidate when it comes to most domestic and economic issues but has a big advantage on terrorism and a narrow edge on Iraq.

Let us see now. We've got a slowing U.S. economy, high gas and food prices, a slumping housing market, increasing number of foreclosures by American homeowners, a wreaked U.S. financial industry, and a still unpopular U.S. war in Iraq. Is it no wonder that Americans are turning sour as this year progresses?

Then there is this comment on McCain's "advantage" on terrorism and Iraq over his Democratic counterparts Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. While there may be a statistical advantage here for McCain with this CNN poll, there is another CNN poll reporting that the U.S. economy is taking center stage over that of Iraq in the 2008 presidential race:

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (CNN) -- A new poll indicates that the economy is issue No. 1 with American voters, now more than ever.

Forty-nine percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday said the economy is the top issue in their vote for president, seven points higher than found in a March survey.

The Iraq War is a distant second, with 19 percent of those polled saying it's the most important issue, followed by the issues of health care at 14 percent, terrorism at 9 percent and immigration at 8 percent.

"Through most of 2007, the war in Iraq was the top issue in voters' minds," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But starting in November, the economy and Iraq tied for first and by December the economy was in the lead. Now the economy beats the war by more than 2-to-1."

The poll suggests that inflation is the top economic issue for most Americans, with 47 percent of those questioned identifying it as the biggest economic problem.

The housing crisis, at 19 percent, came in second, followed by taxes,13 percent; unemployment, 13 percent; and the stock market, 5 percent.
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Both gasoline prices and food prices have skyrocketed this year, but 68 percent of respondents said prices at the pump concern them more, while 23 answered food prices did.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday, with 1,008 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

This is not good news for the McCain campaign, since the McCain economic policy has been pretty much a continuation of the Bush administration's economic policy of more tax cuts and deregulation. If Americans continue to sour on the economy, and if the U.S. economy starts to contract later this year, you can probably bet that Americans will tie McCain to the Bush administration's failed economy when they go into the polls this November. And I do want to point out that the U.S. economy grew by only 0.6 percent for the first quarter of 2008. If it is reported that the U.S. economy contracts during the second or third quarters, then I'm thinking that the McCain campaign will be in serious trouble in explaining how their continuation of the Bush economy policies will pull the U.S. out of a recession. No amount of war spin or terrorist threats would convince Americans to vote Republicans when they are losing their homes, their jobs, and their savings to high food and gas prices.