As the financial and economic crisis deepens, the latest edition of The Harris Poll® finds that the economy, which was already at the top of the list of concerns for Americans, has moved even farther ahead of all other issues that people want the government to address.

Fully 64% of adults now feel that the economy is one of the two most important issues for the government to address. This is up from 54% in September and 43% in August. It is also the first time that any issue has topped 60% in a Harris Poll.

Other issues to be mentioned by more than 5% of adults are health care (22%, almost unchanged from 21% in September), "the war" (14%), Iraq (7%), education (6%) and taxes (6%).

This Harris Poll also tracked the President’s ratings and key trends:

* President Bush’s ratings (24% positive and 75% negative) continue to be equal to his lowest-ever ratings in April and September of this year;

* Ratings of others in the President’s administration are also low where just one in five Americans give Vice President Cheney positive ratings while almost three-quarters (73%) give him negative ones, almost unchanged from June (18% positive and 74% negative). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues to be the "star" of political leaders as 44% of Americans give her job positive ratings while 51 % give her negative ratings, a small improvement from June (39% positive and 54% negative);

* Just one in ten Americans (11%) say that the country is going in the right direction while 83% say it is going on the wrong track. This breaks the previous low of 12% occurring during President George H.W. Bush’s administration in June of 1992

* An even larger 86% to 10% majority gives Congress negative ratings, worse than the 83% to 13% who felt this way in June;

* Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is also close to her lowest ratings as just one-quarter (25%) give her positive job ratings and 64% give her negative ratings; and,

* The ratings of the Republicans (77% negative) and the Democrats (74% negative) in Congress are both at or very close to their historic lows.

So What?

With less than two weeks until Election Day the economy now overwhelms all other issues. With the exceptionally low approval ratings for almost all of the politicians, parties or institutions rated here, this shows that this is an electorate that is unhappy, focused on one central issue and, most likely, looking for someone to blame. Historically, when these events occur together, the party in power is thrown out of power. But with a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress, which party will be thrown out of power? In 1992, when there was also economic uncertainty and very low "right direction" numbers, Democrats swept. But, two years later Republicans won control of Congress. Is this a similar situation? Only time will tell.