new Harris Poll 81% negative; economy is top worry

The new Harris Poll is coming out (no link yet) in advance of the State of the Union address, and it shows Americans are pissed off. These numbers are getting worse (or better, for Democrats, if our candidates could figure out how to dissociate themselves from Bush).

Overall, the Harris Poll found that 81% of Americans  rate the current state of the country as "fair or poor."

We have to have a candidate who is not perceived as part of the problem. Hillary Clinton, imho, is not that candidate.

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More from the Harris Poll:

Four in five Americans (81%) say that plans to strengthen the economy are going poorly while just 16 percent say it is going well.
Three in five (61%) Americans think the war on terrorism, ...is going poorly with just one-third (35%) saying it is  going well.
The war in Iraq fares even worse, as two-thirds (66%) say that is going poorly.

The new Harris Poll comes on the heels of the recent Reuters/Zogby poll which found 48 percent of Americans expect a recession in the next year...and a growing majority of more than two-thirds think the United States is headed in the wrong direction.

These numbers should be a guide to strategy for the Democratic party: we have to present a candidate who is running against the Bush legacy; that's what the Republicans are gonna do, by nominating the "maverick" John McCain: But McCain admittedly knows nothing about economics, and is closely tied to Bush on Iraq and the war on terror. But the media love him, and they'll go along with his "maverick" label.

Unfortunately, one of our three leading candidates for president voted for the Authorization for the Use of Force in Iraq, the Patriot Act (twice) AND for the bankruptcy law. That is why John McCain can beat Clinton; she can't credibly run as anti-Bush, and McCain will hit her over the head with it through the whole campaign.

That is why I don't think Clinton should be our nominee. It's difficult for any senator to run for president, and I don't think Clinton's record will let her be the exception. I do think Obama could do it, but I think John Edwards is the one best positioned to run the campaign that Americans want to see.