BY THE NUMBERS – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  Next year's election may well turn on registration, and the latest trends give the GOP an opening in many states.  From AP:

While Democratic registrations ballooned prior to the 2008 election, the numbers have declined in several important states, including:

- Florida: Democrats added more than 600,000 registered voters between 2006 and 2008, giving Obama about 4.8 million registered Democrats to help his cause. Registered Democrats now number 4.6 million in the Sunshine State. Republican registrations have slipped from 4.1 million in 2008 to about 4.05 million in mid-March, the most recent data available. Nearly 2.6 million voters in Florida are unaffiliated.

- Pennsylvania: Democrats maintain a 1.5 million voter advantage in registrations over Republicans, but their numbers have dwindled since Obama's election. There were 4.15 million registered Democrats through mid-May, compared with about 4.48 million in 2008. Democrats added about a half-million voters to their rolls in the two years prior to the 2008 election. Republicans currently have more than 3 million registered voters, compared with 3.2 million in 2008. About 500,000 Pennsylvania voters are unaffiliated.

- Iowa: Republicans have gained ground in the state that launched Obama's presidential bid. GOP registrations increased from about 625,000 voters in 2008 to nearly 640,000 in early May. Democrats, meanwhile, have fallen from about 736,000 voters in 2008 to about 687,000 in May. Nonpartisan voters remain the largest bloc in the Hawkeye State, representing more than 762,000 voters.

Democrats' numbers have also fallen in North Carolina, where Obama became the first Democratic nominee to carry the state since 1976, and Nevada, a high-growth state that has been battered by the recession.

Several Democratic-friendly cities have not been immune, either. Philadelphia had 880,000 registered Democrats in 2008; that number has fallen below 800,000. Denver, where Democrats held their 2008 convention, had about 200,000 registered Democrats in November 2008 - that's now down to about 120,000. In Mecklenburg County, N.C., whose county seat, Charlotte, is the site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Democrats' numbers have fallen after major gains leading up to the 2008 election.

COMMENT:  Of course, these are tentative figures, pending registration drives this year and next...and Democrats are very good at registration drives.  Why, in Chicago, even the dearly departed come out to register.  Well, they don't exactly come out.  They stay in, but they register anyway. 

The keys for the GOP will be an outstanding presidential candidate and a set of policies that are clear, convincing, and easily explained.  This election can be won, but we can never count on a political pro like Obama to lose it.

May 30, 2011