A new USA Today/Gallup poll released this morning shows exactly a week before Election Day, there is a record-setting enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans.
Gallup says only 37% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters report more enthusiasm than usual about voting, while 63% of registered Republicans Republican leaning voters say they are more fired up and ready to go.
Now, this may not be as apocalyptic as it may initially reads. If the question being asked to a Democratic leaning voter is if you're "more enthusiastic than usual" about the 2010 election, that answer logically might be 0% of Democratic voters. I mean, in 2008, Democrats were fired up. But in 2010, they've already got the Congress (for now) and a President (for two more years, who isn't on the ballot). Democrats haven't been fired up since November of 2008, which as I have written about in the past, was what led in part to the Tea Party filling the vacuum in 2009, beginning with the opposition to the health care reform bill and maintaining all of this year.
But that doesn't mean that all of those who say they are not enthused are not going to the polls – many of them are. But how many? Ah, that is the question. We can tell from early voting here in Florida that the GOP enthusiasm is very, very real, and it would be foolhardy to deny it.
This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2010.