It means that a lot of former Democratic-leaning Independents now call themselves Democrats after having participated in the Democratic primary. If they supported Obama (as most did) then they are very fired up about the election. Many of these folks still call themselves Independents, though, even if they are much more closely linked to Obama than the Republicans.

If they supported Clinton, they probably don't support Obama at all. The key is that a big chunk of the “Democrats” not supporting Obama are actually former Independents who aligned with the Dems recently to vote for Clinton in the primary. The number of lifelong Democrats not supporting Obama is extremely small. And I bet many of these Clinton Independents have gone back to Independent status and are part of the “frustrated” members of that group. I see them sitting the election out, however, rather than voting for McCain.

Then there are the Republicans who quit their party over Bush's failures. They fall into two major groups: first are conservatives angry at Bush's spending, religious right ties, and incompetence. For many of them McCain is the only Republican they would support. They are newly Independent and are excited for McCain. But they think the GOP needs a real makeover. The other group includes paleo-con Republicans angry at Bush over the war. McCain, to them, is actually worse than Bush because of his neocon beliefs. These conservative Independents are unenthusiastic about the election though some may be crossing to Obama.

Then there are the uninformed who don't even think about politics enough to identify with a party. They will never be interested.

Finally, there are the true swing independents. How large this group is is a constant question among analysts. Most people believe it's around 8% a most.

When Independents are seen this way, the numbers make sense. The real issue is probably turnout. If Obama consolidates Dems and breaks even on Independents, he will win easily.

“Barack Straps” what a “McCain in the ass” comments like this are PWT… can't you do better?

These are people who don’t pay attention during the primaries, who (according to Pew Research) are in the group of citizens that don’t know who the vice president is, who Nancy Pelosi is, or who the governor of their state is.

They will have to choose between a guy who knows a guy who says we are in a “mental recession”, or the guy who attended a church for 20 years led by some crazy black preacher shouting “God Damn America”. Picture both of these commercials running every two minutes between the convention and the election.

Remember, these aren’t Keith Olbermann viewers. They couldn’t tell you the three branches of government if you waterboarded them. They don’t know or want to know anything about politics and the only thing they are sure of is that they are going to vote in November.

Good luck with these voters.