I did not know that, but considering the disenfranchisement of people over the years of Bush and his *percieved* failures, followed by Obama and his *perceived* failures, it does not surprise me. Lets face it, Obama kept the presidency not based on any action of his own, but based on backlash against his competition and people not being willing to vote for Romney (so there was some truth to Rac's assertion that Romney had an honest vote)
*I say perceived failures, cause we know that both sides like to blow stuff up out of proportion, and some may not see them as failures at all.
Here is the Gallup data on political identification. They show that about 40% of Americans are Independents, with the rest split amongst Dems and Republicans, and the Republicans are at the bottom.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/151943/record-high-americans-identify-independents.aspx