According to the most recent Pew Survey:

It is clear that Republicans and Republican leaning groups are far more energized at this point in the campaign than are Democrats and Democratic groups. … Among voters who identify as Republicans, 50% fall into to this high engagement category. Perhaps equally important, 57% of independents who say they lean to the GOP are rated as highly engaged. By comparison, Democrats are significantly less engaged. Just 33% of Democrats and 23% of Democratic-leaning independents fall into the high engagement category. Similarly, relatively few among two key demographic groups that supported Democratic candidates in 2006 and 2008, African Americans and young people, rate high on campaign engagement (24% for African Americans, 23% for voters ages 18 to 29).

Those results are fascinating – and, for the Democrats, quite alarming. The “highly-engaged” gap between Republican-leaning and Democratic-leaning independents is 34 points, which is almost unbelievable.

Almost.