Gallup has the breakdown on its website, which includes the little-acknowledged fact that independents overwhelmingly want a third party and always have:

Interestingly, the poll also includes a potential barometer of ideological identification across the country. When asked to identify themselves by political party, 72 percent of self-styled independents called for a third party, compared to just 33 percent of Democrats. But when asked to identify themselves by general ideology, support for a third party among moderates dropped to 52 percent, while support among liberals rose to 51 percent.

Support for a third party held steady at 52 percent across self-identified Republicans and conservatives, suggesting that very few independents identified as conservative, while more than one in four independents identified as liberal.

If a quarter of independents consider themselves liberal and the rest are strictly moderate, it could move the 2012 presidential election in a number of directions. That bloc of liberal-but-not-Democrat voters could end up being a lock for President Obama, leaving it to the Republican candidate — already working with a smaller base than that held by the Democratic party — to fight for every last moderate’s vote. This would all but ensure an Obama victory unless more than two-thirds of non-party-affiliated moderates vote Republican.

Or the growing number of independent liberals disillusioned with the Obama administration over issues like the detention of Bradley Manning and the perpetuation of Bush-era anti-terrorism tactics could just stay home on election day, bolstering Republicans’ chances. Similarly, for the same reasons, staunch liberals may come out in support of a third-party candidate, to the detriment of the Democratic Party — though some have argued that the vote-siphoning effect of third parties is greatly exaggerated.

It’s simply too early to tell. But that large number of liberal and moderate independents fed up with the entire two-party system may very well end up deciding the election. Both parties would do well to start courting them, and soon.

“The conventional wisdom is that Democrats will have a very hard time winning back control of the House next year,” said PPP President Dean Debnam in a release that accompanied the survey results. “But that may be wrong. Voters have soured on the new Republican majority in record time.”

Blogging the survey, PPP’s Tom Jensen noted that 62 percent of voters think “Republicans have either made things worse or brought no improvement to an already unpopular Congress.”

Jensen reports that 46 percent say that today they would vote for Democratic congressional candidates and only 41 percent say they’d vote Republican. “That five-point advantage for Democrats is only a hair below the margin Republicans won by in the national popular vote last year.”

The key to this strong movement back toward the Democrats right now is the same as the key to the strong movement away from the Democrats last year– fickle independents quickly growing unhappy with the party in power. Exit polls showed independents supporting the GOP by a 19 point margin last year at 56-37. Now only 30% of those voters think that the Republican controlled House is moving things in the right direction, compared to 44% who think things were better with the Democrats. Given those numbers it’s not much of a surprise that independents now say they’d vote Democratic for the House by a 42-33 margin if there was an election today, representing a 28 point reversal in a span of just five months.

The survey results suggest the far-right social agenda embraced by congressional Republicans throughout the last three months has turned off voters. PPP reports that, on one hand, more voters see the Democratic Party as mainstream and, on the other, more see the Republican Party as extremist.

The survey found 46 percent of voters see the Democratic Party as mainstream and 39 percent see it as extremist. Whereas only 40 percent see the GOP as mainstream and 48 percent see it as extremist. Most telling, independents said that the Democratic Party is mainstream by a 49 to 36 margin and said the GOP is extremist by a 49 to 33 margin.

Those numbers are not difficult to understand.

In the first week of the Congress, for example, Republicans introduced several bills attempting to block access to abortion. One of the bills attempted to redefine rape to only include “forcible” attacks. Another bill sought to reintroduce the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy repealed in December that barred gay soldiers from serving openly. More recently, the GOP caucus announced it would defend the anti-gay marriage Defense of Marriage Act from legal attacks after the Obama administration announced it believed the law was unconstitutional. Republicans also introduced three bills to defund immensely popular public broadcasting for its supposed liberal bias. And this past week, they placed a provision that would have stripped funding from Planned Parenthood– the top women’s reproductive health organization in the country– at the center of the just-passed federal budget showdown.

Jensen argues that the House GOP takeover may turn out to be an electoral politics boon for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Although we found the President with slightly negative approval numbers on this poll, when asked whether they had more faith in Obama or congressional Republicans to lead the country in the right direction, 48% of voters picked Obama to only 42% who went with congressional Republicans. Voters may not love Obama as once they did but they’re finding him to be more reasonable than the alternative.

PPP surveyed 532 registered American voters from April 7 to April 10 and lists a margin of error is +/-4.3 percent. The Wall Street Journal ranks PPP as one of the most accurate swing-state pollsters in the country.

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But sure enough, a new Public Policy Polling survey released today has the two candidates virtually tied.

The main reason, says PPP, is that Pennsylvania’s sizable Democratic base, which enjoys nearly a one million vote registration advantage over Republicans, appears to finally be waking up:

Democratic voters are getting more engaged as election day moves closer. Barack Obama won Pennsylvania by 10 points in 2008 but our August survey in the state found those planning to vote in November had actually supported John McCain by a point in 2008, suggesting a massive drop off in Democratic turnout. Now those saying they will vote next month supported Obama by 4 points in 2008. The enthusiasm gap is still there but it’s not as severe a problem for Democrats as it was 2 months ago.

Of course, many of those Obama voters are now not so sure about their choice: 51% of Pennsylvania voters disapprove of the job the president is doing, while only 43% approve. That makes Sestak’s climb that much tougher, but he’s been making real strides among independent voters since August as well. Whether this is because independent voters are taking to Sestak or simply becoming more familiar with some of Toomey’s more extreme views, he’s polling better than most Democrats among this group as well, according to PPP.

Naysayers will call the poll as an outlier, but it will likely generate much-needed enthusiasm among Democrats in the state. And having followed Sestak around on the campaign trail during his primary run, I can testify to the fact that the man is tireless and seems to possess the magical ability to finish strong in a long and grueling race.

Sixty percent of likely voters said Sen. Barack Obama’s connection to former Weatherman William Ayers is “not a legitimate campaign issue,” compared with 37 percent who believe it is. The survey also asked about Obama’s ties to the Assn. of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN — another McCain campaign target — and found 49 percent do not think it is a legitimate issue, as opposed to 40 percent who say it is, with 11 percent “unready to express an opinion.”

The poll contains another shot of bad news for the McCain campaign. A majority of respondents, 52 percent, said Sen. John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate makes them “less confident” in McCain’s judgment, to 38 percent who said the choice makes them more confident in McCain’s decision-making.

In contrast, 56 percent said Obama’s choice of running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, made them more confident in the Democratic presidential nominee’s judgment, to 31 percent who said it made them less confident.

Independent voters mirrored the overall results on the question of how the Palin pick influences their confidence in McCain’s judgment, with 51 percent expressing less confidence over the Palin pick, versus 39 percent who said they were more confident. While Palin, not surprisingly, is far more popular among Republicans, with 70 percent saying the choice makes them more confident in McCain’s decision-making, the poll found some troubling results for the McCain campaign among several key demographics. From the survey press release:

Views of the Palin selection, naturally, are highly partisan. But majorities of moderates (62 percent), young adults (59 percent) and women (56 percent) all say it makes them less confident in McCain’s judgment. (More women than men say so.) So do near majorities, 48 percent, of white women and married women alike.

With the race shaping up into a battle for undecided and moderate voters, the implication that a large majority of moderates believe Palin is an example of poor judgment on McCain’s part may not bode well for the GOP presidential nominee — particularly if the voters view McCain’s age, and therefore the possibility of a Palin presidency, as a problem.