"Gallup records from 1951-1988 - based on face-to-face interviewing - indicate that the percentage of independents was generally in the low 30 percent range during those years, suggesting that the proportion of independents in 2011 was the largest in at least 60 years," the survey said.
Taken together, these data suggest that the middle is alive and well, and it is in this swath of the political spectrum that the general election will be decided. Of course, you'd never know it from watching the polarized media.
These data bode poorly for the general-election prospects of Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Ron Paul. Their positions and comments, which were applause lines in Iowa, would come back to haunt them in November. The division of the conservative vote among these candidates has created an opening for a more practical alternative in line with the moderate, national trends. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are both competing for this mantle, and in New Hampshire, Romney won 39 percent of the vote, while Huntsman garnered 17 percent.
The two men have so much in common: their faith, good looks, huge families, beautiful wives, Ivy League educations, and resumés that say "governor."
But when it comes to authenticity, Huntsman is a constant while Romney will always be dogged by questions about a lack of core positions, and a willingness to alter his views to suit the times. Huntsman has never been accused of flip-flopping. "I have lived what I am preaching," the former ambassador to China and governor of Utah told me a week ago in Manchester.
