PrairiePundit

 Red State: ... The focus group comprised of seven Democrats, five independents, and five Republicans, represented by blue, yellow, and red lines, respectively. But what was interesting was how much the independents tracked with the Republicans.   When Trump spoke of the rising crime at the hands of illegal immigrants, the yellow line monitoring the independent reaction rose drastically in Trump's favor, overlapping with the red Republican line. "I was really, really surprised because the intensity of the independent support was there for Donald Trump and I didn't expect it," Carter said Wednesday on "The Faulkner Focus." "Independents are tracking very much with Republicans. They're looking for a couple of things. They're looking for answers on immigration, they're looking for answers on the economy. They want to hear that things will get better for them and they also want change from what is happening right now," Carter continued. ...

 Stephen Green: Democrat support from independent voters has fallen near the crucial 40% line, while almost half of all independent voters tell  Gallup  that they’re leaning Republican. “If you’re a Democrat and you’re not terrified,” says The Dispatch’s  Avi Woolf , “you should be.” Well, I’m neither a Democrat nor terrified, but I am conservative and — at least for now — quite giddy. Gallup recently updated its long-term party affiliation poll, which asks American voters one or two simple questions: In politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat or an independent? (If they ID as independents) As of today, do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party? Currently, 31% say they’re Republicans, up slightly from the usual mid-20s to 30%. 41% told Gallup that they’re independent voters, in line with the average swing. Only 27% self-ID as Democrats, which is down from the more typical 29-32%. As recently as May, Democrats we...

Bloomberg: After a difficult midterm election cycle for Democrats, the number of Americans identifying with the party is at an almost 34-year low, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll published Wednesday. Twenty-six percent say they identify as Democrats, according to the poll. Forty-one percent identify as independents and 23 percent say they are Republicans. A bright spot for the GOP: 47 percent say they see the party favorably, “up by a remarkable 14 percentage points since mid-October to its best among the general public since March 2006,” wrote pollster Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates. ... Being associated with Harry Reid and President Obama is apparently too much for many former Democrats.   Others are trying to hide their affiliation under the guise of being "independents."  That is why some leftist ran as independents in 2014, and two so called independents caucus with Democrats in the Senate.

The Hill: Independents — wave of future? If they are really independents why do they always caucus with the Democrats?

NY Times: In a high-security jail here, five men — all members of the Islamic militant group described by the United States and India as the organizers of the terrorist rampage in Mumbai last year — were brought before a makeshift court in Pakistan’s first steps to bring them to justice. The brief appearances, described by a defense lawyer, were held in secret for security reasons on Saturday in a case that Pakistan says shows its willingness to prosecute the group, Lashkar-e-Taiba . Pakistan also says that the case will demonstrate that its military, which once backed the group as a surrogate force against India, has severed all ties. But behind the first glimmerings of the case, sympathies for Lashkar-e-Taiba and its jihadist and anti-Indian culture run deep in this country, raising a serious challenge to any long-lasting moves to dismantle the network. The membership of Lashkar-e-Taiba extends to about 150,000 people, according to a midlevel officer in Pakistan’s premier spy agency...

Politico: In a potentially alarming trend for the White House, independent voters are deserting President Barack Obama nationally and especially in key swing states, recent polls suggest. Obama’s job approval rating hit a — still healthy — low of 56 percent in the Gallup Poll on Wednesday. And pollsters are debating whether Obama’s expansive and expensive policy proposals or the ground-level realities of a still-faltering economy are driving the falling numbers. But a source of the shift appears to be independent voters , who seem to be responding to Republican complaints of excessive spending and government control. “This is a huge sea change that is playing itself out in American politics,” said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen . “Independents who had become effectively operational Democrats in 2006 and 2008 are now up for grabs and are trending Republican. “They’re saying, ‘Costing too much, no results, see the downside, not sure of the upside,’” he said. ... I think these ...

Gerald Seib: Independent voters are the canaries in the coal mine of American politics, telling a leader whether the air is safe or starting to fill up with some toxic gases. Bearing that in mind, President Barack Obama and his team ought to start worrying about the health of those canaries. ... Among these people, who tend to reside in the middle of the ideological spectrum, the president's job-approval rating fell to 45% from 60% in April. ... In particular, the survey suggests, independents are developing gnawing fears about government spending. They are markedly more worried about the federal budget deficit as an economic issue than are Americans in general, and they are more likely to be skeptical of Mr. Obama's plan for a health-care overhaul. Above all, though, independents are starting to simply view the president as more liberal than they expected. The share of independents who say Mr. Obama is a liberal has risen to a substantial 64% from 46% two months ago. A large...

John Avlon: In the months since Barack Obama won the presidency, independent voters have rocketed to their highest number on record. Meanwhile, the ranks of Republicans and Democrats have thinned dramatically. Independents hold the balance of power in the Obama era. That's the conclusion of a recent, 165-page Pew Research Center survey that shows independent voters climbed to 39% from 30% of the electorate in the five months following the 2008 election. During that same time, Democratic identification fell to 33% from 39%, while Republicans fell four points to 22% -- their lowest since post-Watergate. This is evidence that President Obama's election does not represent a liberal ideological mandate, as House Democrats have claimed. It also shows continued rejection of the Republican brand. On virtually every policy issue, independents are situated between increasingly polarized Democrats and Republicans. They more accurately reflect centrist national attitudes than the 11% of...