And what's the Democratic Party offering? More of the same gutless behavior (on Iraq, on the Drug War, on the Patriot Act, etc) and unwillingness to be a real opposition party. I'm of the mind that the Democrats may need another major defeat before they finally wake up and present a real alternative to the Republicans (and even then they may not).

In the meantime if RP does run as an independent in the general election I believe he will take a non-trivial portion of the Democrat's younger voters. Not because they support all (or even most) of RP's positions, but simply because they admire the fact that he's willing to stand up and take a strong position against the status quo of the Democratic/Republican party.