DENVER - National pollster Peter Hart had lots of good news for party members during a morning breakfast with the Missouri delegation at the Democratic National Convention. The Republicans in general are vulnerable because of public dislike for President George W. Bush, Hart said. That's no surprise, but Hart also warned Democrats that this disenchantment doesn't mean November will be a cakewalk for the presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama in his race against GOP Sen. John McCain.

Hart heads Peter D. Hart Research Associates, a survey research firm in the field of public opinion for more than three decades.

Unity is Job One

The good news for Democrats, Hart said, include polls showing that about 80 percent of voters say the country is seriously on the wrong track on issues such as the economy. Barely one-third of Americans give Bush a positive performance rating.

Peter Hart

Photo by Robert Joiner | The Beacon

Pollster says Democrats must unite.

 The first thing the party must do is unite, said Hart.

"I know Missouri is divided right down the middle," he said of supporters of Obama and Hillary Clinton in the delegation. The division nationally is bad news because only about 35 percent of voters nationwide believe Democrats are united, he said, adding that the numbers meant the public already is reacting negatively to the disunity.

"It's either we're ready to govern or the Democrats once again don't have their act together. We can't go out of this convention with one group against another. It has to be one party united to do the job."

Define McCain for the voters

The second important issue, Hart said, was the Democrats' inability so far to define McCain.

"What McCain and his campaign have done -- and done effectively -- is make the election a referendum on Barack Obama," Hart told the delegates. He added that the GOP is influencing "voters who are inbetween, uncertain, not sure about Obama's experience" or not sure about having an African American president or one younger than 50. "Those are big challenges for any campaign."

On the other hand, Hart says, voters look at McCain's record and it becomes easy for people to vote for Obama. But the challenge, Hart says, is for the Obama campaign to give voters a better picture of who McCain really is.

Draw a more human portrait of Obama

By the same token, he warned that Democrats must do more to "expand the portrait of Obama."

Hart mentioned a focus group on Monday with Hispanic voters in Colorado.

"What they knew about Obama, they liked. But they don't really know him. They don't have a sense of his personality, what he's like, what he'd be like to have over to a potluck dinner, what he'd be like on the weekend. We need to add these personal dynamics" to what voters know.

Democrats were hampered in 2004 because they had no message except get rid of Bush, he said. This year, the party is in better shape because they are giving voters more of a sense of what they want to do.

Finally, he says Democrats have one other thing that Republicans generally lack: "The energy and enthusiasm are much higher in 2008." While about 46 percent of Democrats say they are enthusiastic about the party's campaign, Hart said a very small percentage of Republicans said they were enthusiastic "and we can't find them," he quipped.

This enthusiasm, he predicts, might lead Democrats to pick up about 20 seats in the U.S. House and perhaps five in the U.S. Senate. He adds that some Democrats are waiting and wondering who McCain's running mate will be.

"Please, oh God, please select Mitt Romney," Hart joked. "If you want to talk about the number of houses -- it would be the richest ticket, the most silver-spooned ticket there has ever been."