A peek behind the curtain

Over at Edge of the American West, SEK decided to peek behind the curtain of the GOP's Sarah Palin driven Triumphalism, and take a look at a critical electoral indicator, Voter registration. The numbers are not very good news for the GOP.

Here are a few choice examples in a few Battleground States:

Colorado: 13,352 Republicans, 66,516 Democrats, 23,437 Independents

Florida: 77,196 Republican, 209,422 Democrat, 26,100 Independents
From January to June

Iowa: 7,515 Republicans, 69,301 Democrats, -62,922 Independents
From January to August

Nevada: 1,230 Republicans, 51,457 Democrats, 7,550 Independents
From January to August

North Carolina: 20,363 Republicans, 171,955 Democrats, 123,605 Unaffiliated
From January 5 to August 30
Src: January 5, August 30

He could not acquire numbers from some of the other keys states, but it's likely the trend is national. And keep in mind that the Obama people have been constructing a massive GOTV effort modeled on the Bush/Cheney machine to leverage this registration trend.

Yes, the press narratives matter, but ultimately, all the nice speeches and pundit worship of John McCain is a sideshow to the ability to register new voters affiliated with your party, and then get them to the polls on election day. And in that area, the Obama campaign seems to have focused on.