John Hardly, McCain could win with independents and enough Democrats to squeak through, just like Bush did.

You need to remember that independents are now roughly 1/3 of the registered voters in the US, and we don't vote in the primaries. The primaries is for registered Democrats and registered Republicans.

Some states allow independents to vote in the primaries, others don't. Some states allow independents to vote in the Dem primary, but not the Republican. I am not aware of any states that allow independents to vote in Republican primaries.

So that is the answer to how he can get elected. By gaining a solid Republican base, capture the indie vote, and steal a few Dems here and there. And voila, he is in.

No matter what way you dress it up, the Democratic party is looking more and more like a divided party with the race dragging out between Obama and Clinton. I'm trying to figure out a scenario where that will work to the Democrats advantage in this election, and haven't come up with one yet.

I also haven't seen that anyone else has either. McCain may even declare a running mate sooner rather than later, just to get a good head start on the campaign trail over the Dems, who will be bleeding themselves to death through the primaries, battling for super delegates, nasty fights over whether to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, and BIG demonstrations from the anti-war wing of the party.

Pretty soon, it starts looking like 1968 all over again.