There’s much being written about record number of new registered voters in several key states. What is tough to decipher is which political party is benefiting more from this upsurge.

The New Republic has a story offering evidence that the Dems are signing up more than the GOP, but do we really need TNR to point out what should be fairly obvious? I just find it very hard to believe that given the emotions and stakes involved that Bush supporters would be flocking to register more so than Kerry supporters. In effect, the policies of GW are inciting people to get up off their asses and register; are we to believe there are more pissed-off Bush supporters out there who weren’t already registered? It’s highly doubtful. The feelings stirred up by Bush/Cheney are so visceral that it simply lays bare the reasonable conclusion that any waves of new registered voters are most likely to be those who feel compelled to vote for the first time ever – which more likely than not would mean to vote out the incumbent, i.e. they’re Dems!