THANKS, UR:

Morning Fix: Republicans' Independent Gains? (Chris Cillizza, 10/01/09, The Fix: Washington Post)

For the first time in more than four years of Gallup polls, more self-described independents now lean toward the Republican Party (15 percent) than toward the Democratic party (13 percent). Those numbers are a far cry from late 2006 -- when almost twice as many independents leaned toward Democrats -- or even late 2008 when Democratic-leaning independents outnumbered Republican-leaning independents 16 percent to 12 percent.

Largely as a result of the movement of independents toward Republican, the wide party identification gap Democrats have enjoyed for the last two elections has shrunk to just six points -- 48 percent Democratic, 42 Republican -- the smallest that space has been since early 2005.