aaaaugh! lack of... sarcasm.... in article....vital as precious.... oxygen! need.... to live!

i mean, excellent article FTR!

That trend will probably end in '08 when another lame-ass presidential candidate is served up.

Traitors!!! Traitors all of them!!!

god help us

Oh well;..... another election without an erection.

Oh please. Please go away, Santorum. That alone would make my day.

Too bad that none of the polls will matter in 2008 when Jeb Bush becomes our next president.

Do you honestly think folks would vote for another Bush immediately after the mess this one made ? Or is my sarcasm detector off kilter this morning ?

There is no real trend here. If you look at the data linked from the original article you'll see that October 2004 was picked in order to create the illusion of a trend.

If I were to choose November 2005 as the start point, I'd see: Dem -1.8%, Rep -2.2, Ind +4.0

Or let's look at January 2004: Dem -0.8, Rep -2.7, Ind +3.5

With a +/- poll error of 1%, you can draw your own conclusions. I conclude that people are tired of both parties' antics.

The real story here is that there are modest, but increasing numbers of people disaffected with both parties and registering independent.

the declaration of being "independent" is usually more of an illusion than anything else. people may not claim to be in a party (and there could be lots of reasons for that - including just wanting to appear sophistimicated) - but they probably *do* vote along pretty reliable partisan lines. now, that might just be about ideology too. but chances are partisanship is strong, but folks just aren't aware of it/don't want to admit it.

So, does that mean that FTR's sarcasm is just getting more sophisticated?

+1

yea, that's kinda what i take from it. no news there.

Does anyone have a Gallup Poll reflecting this trend?