The National Journal’s Mark Blumenthal analyzes this CNN poll of Tea Party independents:

Pollsters from CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation had identified 11 percent of Americans who said they have given money, attended rallies or taken other “active steps” to support the Tea Party movement. Of those who had, more identified themselves as independent (52 percent) than Republican (44 percent) or Democratic (4 percent).

But the article then adds a caution from CNN pollster Keating Holland that some will find puzzling: The apparent independence of Tea Party supporters “might be slightly misleading,” he said, “because 87 percent say they would vote for the GOP candidate in their congressional district if there were no third-party candidate endorsed by the Tea Party.”

After New Orleans drowned and Democrats swept the next two general elections, a lot of the Bush base became born-again independents and, as Digby said, have tried “to pretend that they weren’t genuflecting to his picture for the first six years of his presidency.”

Like many others on the political left, while the country went slowly to hell I spent years as an independent, partly because I was never much of a “joiner” and partly to avoid any taint on my clean, white vinyl soul. As John Sides, the George Washington University political scientist Blumenthal quotes writes, being registered independent doesn’t mean one is not an “independent leaner.” A friend once described himself as such an outsider that if he ever actually found himself on the inside of some group he would have to create an outside just to feel at home. Even he isn’t as independent as he lets on. Nor are most of the callers to the Ed Schultz show who preface their remarks by proclaiming their independence.

Blumenthal digs deeper into the CNN poll numbers:

Remember the 52 percent of Tea Party activists who initially identify as independent? It turns out that virtually all of them lean Republican. According to CNN, 88 percent of the activists identify or lean Republican, 6 percent identify or lean Democratic and only 5 percent fall into the pure independent category.

The lack of followup questions in much opinion polling clouds the view, leading to the Beltway’s belief that independents have grown to a third of the country since Obama took office. We’ll see just how independent they are this November.