'06 midterms showed that voters are pretty disgusted with the repubs. bush's immigration bill has made even more voters disgusted with the repubs - to the point where even the kook-aid drinkers were calling for his impeachment.
toss in the scandals, the Iraq Occupation, and trent lott's recent comment about having to do "something about talk radio" and you have even more republics/R-wingers looking elsewhere for a leader.
On the Dem side we see growing dissatisfaction with Congress and hopes of action dashed. yes, there are lots of "investigations" - but if it's just investigation with no conclusion then it's just blather. The "we don't have the votes" excuse is not flying, taking impeachment off the table hasn't helped either. To the general public it's just more of the same. Think of it as buying tickets to see a concert for "X", once there you find out it's an "X-impersonator/tribute band" on stage. Not what you paid for, not what you expected.
If the slate of candidates is so great - why are the repubs flocking to Fred Thompson, who isn't even officially in the race? Why are dems nervous about Bloomburg?
in '92 - despite jumping into and out of and back into the presidential race - Perot garnered 18.91% of the vote, add in the other 3rd party candidates and you have 19.55% voting for someone other than clinton and bush-1. (
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1992&f=0 )
Why? Perot represented an alternative to bush-1 and clinton and a way for people to express their dissatisfaction with the main parties. I suspect many who voted for Perot did so more as a "VOTE AGAINST" dem/repub as opposed as a "VOTE FOR".
bush-1 was seen as being "wimpy" for not continuing into Iraq following the first persian gulf war (i.e. liberation of Kuwait) - this alienated many conservatives. His failure to acknowledge the recession alienated even more people from both sides. Perot offered them an alternative to bush-1, clinton, or not voting at all. Perot was also the alternative for those who were not happy with the main party candidates.
There is no sitting president/vice-president running in '08 - no obvious leader. People want a change of direction and they want it now. If the dem/repub party can't offer someone credible, people are going to look elsewhere. be it Bloomburg or someone else - this is a wake-up call and the parties best stop hitting the snooze button