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Though he never affirmed his intent to seek the Republican nomination for president, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended all speculation that he may run yesterday. "Now is not my time," Christie said in a nationally televised news conference. The decision surely left many Republicans disappointed. With many feeling doubtful about the Republican candidates, and President Obama's approval rating dropping, is this the perfect time for an independent candidate to jump in?

The economy was in the tank. the incumbent president’s approval ratings were below 50 percent and falling, angry activists were forming new organizations based on the sole premise of kicking out incumbents, and an untested governor from the south looked to be the most viable challenger.

It sounds a lot like today, but it was February 20, 1992. 

It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale continues her monthly series with us. This week: how independent groups are going after minority voters.

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It's a Free Country reporter Anna Sale returns to discuss how the GOP candidates are trying to woo the famously independent New Hampshire voter.

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With a state motto like "Live Free or Die," you might expect that New Hampshire has a fair number of independent voters. That’s what prompted Anna Sale — reporter for It’s a Free Country, the politics website of our co-producer WNYC — to report from there. Sale has been on the road speaking to independent voters across the country, in an attempt to gauge which direction this large and crucial demographic is leaning as we approach the 2012 presidential election. She’s spent the last few days in New Hampshire, focusing on how Republicans and Democrats are attempting to capture the independent vote there.

Independent voters in New Hampshire share a proud, stubborn resistance to let a party define their politics, but not much else.

These unaffiliated voters are a huge electoral force in the state, outnumbering both Republicans and Democrats, and because New Hampshire’s primary system allows them to vote in either Democratic or Republican primary, they could technically sway the entire election. 

These voters don’t vote in anything resembling a bloc, and with just a contest on the Republican side, they may not turnout in large numbers in 2012.

President Obama is losing support among independents, and there’s a mad dash among political organizers to grab them as they peel off. But their approach differs on how they diagnose who independent voters are and what they care about. 

And their success will depend on their ability to navigate the political graveyard that’s littered with efforts to change the system during hotly contested, highly partisan political campaigns.

It's a Free Country political reporter Anna Sale discusses the various groups trying to coalesce independent voters, in week two of her search for the independent voter.

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After this morning's show, The Takeaway's co-host Celeste Headlee reacts to the Congressional deadlock over the Federal Aviation Authority authorization bill that has left the agency partially shutdown and about 4,000 FAA workers indefinitely furloughed. She discusses a recent Pew Research Center study which reveals that a growing number of Americans are disgusted with both Democrats and Republicans, and, as a result, are choosing to affiliate with neither party. Celeste reminds us that there is only one solution to political dysfunction: educate yourself and show up at the polls to vote.

All through August, Anna Sale is on a search for the independent voter. These are the prize voters who could make up the margin in the 2012 contest, but their definition is elusive and their politics mixed. First stop, Colorado.

It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale discuss her search for the independent voter. First stop: Colorado.

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The bitter debt debate may be over on Capitol Hill, but average Americans are having trouble getting the taste out of their mouths. According to the Pew research group, a growing number of Americans are disgusted with both parties, and are choosing to affiliate with neither. Independents have played a determining role in the last three national elections. 

I stopped by Borders the other day, and picked up a book I had been meaning to read called 'The Political Brain', by Drew Weston. In the introduction to the book, Weston talks about an experiment he did in the run up to the 2004 election. Openly partisan test subjects were shown glaring examples where a politician made contradictory statements, and asked to rate how contradictory they thought those statements were.

Unsurprisingly, the subjects that were of the same variety of partisan as the politician in question were significantly more likely to explain away their unethical behavior, with the mirror opposite being the case with the figure on the other side of the aisle.

I'm not one of those centrists who pretends I'm not a partisan. I'm as politically opinionated as the next guy — but I do attempt to watch when my personal biases result in giving candidates I support, or in this case an organization, more leeway than I'd give anyone else.

Two weekends ago I flew out to New York City, for a conference for independent activists.

I was hoping for a learning experience that would be welcoming for independents of all (or at least most) stripes, but I got a rally for left-leaning to left-wing independents. It really would have taken some serious effort to collect a less representative sample of independents.

The first post I was invited to write for this site was about why I was coming all the way from Nebraska to attend the launch of the nonpartisan political organization No Labels in New York. This weekend I am traveling to your fair city once again, this time to attend the Conference of Independents, hosted by IndependentVoting.org, a political organization headquartered in New York City that is tied closely with the Independence Party of New York, as well as Michael Bloomberg.

This isn’t nearly as big of an event as No Labels’ launch, as the target audience is a more focused group of actual independent activists, and is positively tiny in comparison to the conservative CPAC conference, but that it continues every other year and is growing is just another example of how what I call the ‘independent groundswell’ is beginning to organize itself.

The good, the bad, the game changers and the so-sos. Here are ten things that happened in 2010 politics that we'd do well to remember in 2011.