Pollster and strategist Patrick Caddell. Photo: Raymond Hamlin.

A renowned American public opinion pollster said this week that he hasn’t “seen numbers indicating concern with national security this high in 20-30 years.”

Patrick Caddell, an analyst on Fox News’ “Political Insiders,” which airs Sunday nights, made this comment during an address to the Gatestone Institute — a New York-based think tank specializing in strategy and defense issues – as Indiana primary voters went to the polls on Tuesday. By evening, the results of both the Democratic and Republican primaries were in, with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump garnering a clear majority over rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich, and candidate for Democratic presidential nominee Bernie Sanders beating Hillary Clinton.

Caddell, a decades’-long Democratic adviser and strategist, who has been even more critical of his party – particularly under the current administration in Washington — as he is of the other side of the aisle, had predicted such an outcome. Indeed, hours before the die was cast and both Cruz and Kasich had withdrawn from the race, he said, “The American people are rising to retake their sovereignty.” And the showing of both Trump and Sanders reflects this sentiment.

Of the three key things Caddell pointed to as “overriding” the current election campaign, the first he mentioned was the feeling among most Americans, according to his data, “that the country is in steady decline,” both at home and abroad, which is causing the electorate to “move to the center-Right, though you wouldn’t know it.”

Radical Islamic terrorism, he said, “is an issue most Americans say needs to be identified and addressed,” claiming that a majority opposed the nuclear deal with Iran.

Asked by The Algemeiner whether Americans – polling of whom consistently shows wide support for Israel — consider the Palestinians as connected to the issue of Islamic terrorism or distinct from it, and how major a role foreign policy is playing in the current campaign, Caddell said, “That’s a question I’m still waiting on… but it should play a significant role, because Americans are very worried and upset, and they feel the situation is dangerous, whether in relation to the Middle East, China or Russia.”

Caddell took issue with the Republicans for not “providing the public with the narrative,” adding, “If you didn’t watch Fox News, you wouldn’t even know about rockets being fired at Israel. I mean, the suppression of truth, in the name of serving the White House’s political agenda, is just staggering.”

This election, he concluded “could very well turn – and should turn, in my opinion – on national security.”