Democrats registering in record numbers

Strategists weigh general election impact of swell in new primary voters

RALEIGH, N.C. - They lined up shoulder to shoulder inside the gray high-rise downtown, their politics as diverse as their backgrounds. An ex-felon who needs health insurance, followed by a high school student seeking empowerment, followed by a Marine Corps veteran who wants to prevent his country from crumbling.

Like hundreds of others, their quests led them to the Wake County voter services office earlier this month to register as Democrats for the first time. The line of newcomers that snaked across the checkered tile floor was emblematic of those that have formed across the country this year: black voters, young voters, lifelong Republicans switching parties -- all registering in record numbers, and all aligning as Democrats.

Elections Director Cherie Poucher waited for them behind a counter with a jar of pens and a 10-inch stack of registration forms. She had hired 10 people from a temp agency to help handle the rush on this final day of North Carolina voter registration. Now, as she watched four more people file through the door, Poucher wished she had hired more.

"In 20 years," she said, "I've never seen anything quite like it."

The past seven states to hold primaries registered more than 1 million new Democratic voters; Republican numbers mainly ebbed or stagnated. North Carolina and Indiana, which will hold their presidential primaries on May 6, are already reporting a swell of new Democrats that triples the surge in registrations before the 2004 primary.

The contest between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has engaged enough new voters to change the political makeup of the country, experts say. The next several months -- and the general election in November -- will reveal the extent of the shift. Is it a temporary increase in interest resulting from a close election between historic candidates? Or is it a seismic swing in party realignment that foretells the end of the red-blue stalemate?

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{ The fact that a woman or a black man will likely be the next President of the United States is certainly fuelling this rush to sign up and be part of the new democratic fold. There is more to it then just that though. I don't ever remember a time where there was such generalized disgust for a government as there is for the Bush administration. It almost seems like an opportunity to strike a personal blow against the Bush/Cheney/Neocon cabal......a sort of "take that you SOB's!"

The Republicans are in such a sorry state after eight years of slavery to the neocons that the best they can offer up for the general election is another old Neocon and war peddler. A blast from the past. Bush Lite. John "the ghost of christmas past" McCain! He wanders around, slightly confused, seemingly without any knowledge that he is a sacrificial lamb. Instead of offering the old fellow a watch to honor his commitment and years of dedication to his party the Republicans have led him to the wall and blindfolded him while they wait for the executors of november to arrive. It's sad. The old fellow continues to smile totally unaware of what his friends are doing to him.

Is it any wonder even Republicans are running to sign up as born again Democrats?

On the Democratic side we have the young, charismatic, elegant and ever hopeful Barack Obama and the feisty, combative and energetic Hillary Clinton. Many on both sides of the political equation are pleased to see a woman as a serious candidate for the top job. Many, however, feel that she is the wrong woman. She does however have millions of supporters and if she falls on her sword for the good of the party as expected.....you can bet she will have an important role to play in the future, likely in a Obama administration.

Obama is young and inexperienced but intelligent and far-sighted. He will build a true administration representative of America. I predict he will have a cabinet full of Conservatives and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats.....some of the best minds politics and academia can offer up. It will be a new "Camelot" and profoundly different from the disastrous administration we suffer under now. This is the excitement that is driving people to sign up to be members of the Democratic party. It is a belief in the future and the dream of a better America. Just look at the faces of Americans as they listen to Obama speak and you can see a new America unfolding in their eyes.

It's a great time to be an American!

Don't you think?}

Rose