41 Million Tea Party Supporters Set to Vote. Can you hear me now?

The Tea Party is regularly ridiculed and declared "dead"
by the mainstream press and their elitist allies in Washington and
Hollywood. Not surprisingly, when Tea Partiers show up and rally by the
thousands, they get all but ignored, while 30 Occupy Wall Street crazies
in masks will always get wall-to-wall coverage and admiration. TV shows
and movies take cheap shots at Tea Party conservatives, often linking
them to murder-of-the-week cases on insipid crime procedurals or
dismissing them as “birthers.” But a new Associated Press poll shows tea party supporters may have the last laugh in November.

The AP/GFK poll shows
that 31% of likely voters consider themselves Tea Party supporters.
With 131 million votes cast in the 2008 elections, that translates into
an incredible voting bloc of 41 million Tea Party supporters waiting to
cast ballots. These voters have already made their voices heard in
Wisconsin earlier this year, as well as in Republican primaries in Texas and Nebraska.

That 31% of likely voters figure is greater than the 19% who
described themselves as either strongly or somewhat liberal.
Surprisingly, liberals have escaped media characterization as being a
small, fringe-like group with little power or influence. At 19% of
likely voters, self-described liberals would have a turnout of 25
million voters, some 16 million fewer voters than the Tea Party.

Meanwhile, self-described liberals fell 11% from the initial sample
to the likely voter sample, while moderates increased by 3% and
conservatives increased by 8%. This enthusiasm gap could make the
difference in November. Once unregistered and unlikely voters were
removed from the AP poll sample, Obama’s share of the vote plummeted by
10%, while Romney’s share of the vote increased by 28%. That support is
driven, of course, by a supposedly dead movement. Overall, the poll
shows a statistical tie with Obama at 47%, and Romney at 46%.