2012 Iowa Caucus/ New Hampshire Primary: Where are the Independents?

I wouldn't bother you with last week's news but it's the current topic of msm... I tried to pick out some of the more interesting items relative to independent voters. More to come! - NH


2012
PPP: Obama's base as enthusiastic as conservatives (By BYRON TAU, Politico) The Democratic-leaning pollster Public Policy Polling  [SEE BELOW] finds that African-Americans, tea party supporters and young people are the three most motivated demographic groups going into the 2012 election cycle.
Enthusiasm and the 2012 Election (Public Policy Polling) Obama's path to reelection is difficult and if the election was today and the Republican nominee was Mitt Romney I think he'd probably lose. That's because his standing has fallen so far with independents and with the more conservative wing of his own party. But it's not because those core groups that fueled his victory in 2008 have lost their enthusiasm.
Independents represent a major unknown in the N.H. primary (By Sandhya Somashekhar, Washington Post) Independents are a finicky and fickle bunch. They are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of the country, with a majority saying things are badly off track. Social issues do not concern them. Many voted for President Obama. And now, this critical voting bloc — which makes up roughly 45 percent of the New Hampshire electorate — is about to take center stage. If the Iowa contest exposed the conflicted mood and sharp divisions within the GOP, then New Hampshire will offer a snapshot of a hard-to-pin-down sliver of the electorate that has an outsize impact on elections, particularly in this swing state.
Ron Paul says he got youth, Independent vote (Mary Stegmeir, Des Moines Register) Ron Paul said this morning that a large number of young people and Independent voters supported him in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, proving his campaign can go the distance.
Shields, Brooks on the Macro and Micro Stories of the Iowa Caucuses (Judy Woodruff, PBSNewsHour on YouTube) The "sleeper story" is how Ron Paul is resonating among independent voters, NewsHour regular Mark Shields adds.
Americans Elect: Obama's Third-Party Tar Pit (By Jared E. Peterson, American Thinker) Anyone with the remotest interest in replacing Barack Obama as America's president in 2012 should take his eyes off Iowa and the boring ups and downs of the race for the Republican nomination. The real action that may well decide our next president is quietly going on elsewhere, in the state offices that qualify candidates and parties for the November 2012 presidential ballot.  You may not have heard much about a shadowy group called "Americans Elect"…