Bush and the independents

We all know that Bush's approval ratings are collapsing, but a new poll reveals that among independents his job approval rating is down to... 17%. (That's one point lower than among Democrats!) Extraordinary. Not surprising, mind you, but still enormously significant. The Moderate Voice responds here, Andrew Sullivan here. Sullivan, an independent himself:

The disapproval levels of Independents and Democrats are now indistinguishable, but the Republican bloc is solid. This strikes me as a direct result of the Rove strategy of brutal partisanship, Christianist pandering, and general fiscal and military fecklessness. Some readers have said that my criticism of the administration makes me sound like a liberal these days. Well, from these results, I'm not the only one being pushed by right-wing extremism into opposition.

And that's more or less how I feel at this point, too. I'm certainly more liberal than Sullivan, and, unlike him, I would say that I'm a Democrat (a Canadian Democrat?), but Republican extremism is pushing us all further to the left. The question is, can the Democrats capitalize on this?