Early exit polls are showing that most Americans are not happy with the status quo in the country.

Roughly three-quarters of the US electorate holds a negative view of the way things are going in the US today, according to the initial results of CNN’s national exit poll of voters in this year’s presidential election.

Only about one-quarter call themselves enthusiastic or satisfied with the state of the nation, with more than 4 in 10 dissatisfied and roughly 3 in 10 saying they’re angry.

But voters remain generally optimistic, with more than 6 in 10 saying that America’s best days are in the future, and only about one-third that they’re already in the past. President Joe Biden’s approval rating is underwater nationally, with about 4 in 10 voters saying they approve of his job performance and a majority disapproving.

Normally, I think a result like this would give the party out of power a lot of confidence about how things are going to go in the election. However, you've probably noticed that Kamala Harris, despite being the current Vice President, has been running as a change candidate. And while I don't think many people on the right buy into that view, my guess is that many on the left do. In other words, some of these dissatisfied people may see Harris as the solution rather than part of the problem. So I think this little piece of the polling may only be telling us that Joe Biden would definitely have lost this election.

But there are other reports coming in based on the exit polls. This one seems more clearly favorable to Trump.

Nearly half of voters say they are financially worse off now than they were four years ago, according to early results from the NBC News Exit Poll. That’s a rate of dissatisfaction higher than in any presidential election in the past 16 years, including 2008 — the second highest — when 42% of voters said they were worse off in the wake of that year’s financial crisis. Just one in four voters say they are better off than they were four years ago.

That should be the death knell for Democrats this election cycle, but again, you have to wonder how many Democrats have convinced themselves that Harris is the change they want rather than the sitting VP. 

Here's another exit poll result about the top issues. This one seems more clearly favorable to Harris but note the caveat in the last paragraph below.

Thirty-five percent of voters said democracy mattered most to their vote, while 31% said the economy. Abortion (14%) and immigration (11%) ranked as the next-most important issues, while just 4% named foreign policy.

Men and women both said the state of democracy was their most important issue, followed by the economy. Two in 10 women said abortion was most important, compared to 8% of men. Immigration was ranked slightly higher among men (12%) than women (10%). Foreign policy lagged behind as a priority for both groups.

The exit poll results can shift throughout the night as more interviews are conducted and more vote is counted.

So you had a batch of left-leaning voters who are concerned primarily about democracy and abortion. That doesn't represent all voters since, obviously, polls are still open almost everywhere as I write this.

Anyway, some more tea leaves to pour over while we wait for polls to close in the big swing states (GA, NC, PA, WI, MI) that we're all watching tonight.