ST. PAUL — There’s a reason that Democrats were treading so lightly on the red-meat issues at their convention last week that TV analysts started asking what was up.

It’s the same reason that Republican strategists weren’t too upset about skipping the attack politics thus far in the GOP convention during the Gulf Coast hurricane emergency.

It’s not Democrats or Republicans in question, it’s those independent voters in the middle of the electorate that need wooing, polls are showing.

A National Journal poll released this morning showed something remarkable for this stage of the campaign: 85 percent of Republicans are firmly for John McCain and 84 percent of Democrats are squarely behind Barack Obama.

That partisan commitment is much the same in other polls and hasn’t changed much recently, leading pollsters to conclude that this election will be decided by independents and a relatively small number of voters in the middle.

In Missouri and other battleground states, the candidates’ best route to those voters - and perhaps to victory in November - is connecting on the cluster of economic issues that are worrying the public.

“I don’t think that the harsh, ideological language takes you were you want to go,” said Ed Reilly, a Democratic-aligned pollster. “Those people have already made up their mind. These candidates are well ahead of other candidates in terms of firming up their base.”

Reilly estimated that candidates are aiming at just 12-15 percent of the electorate. “There’s not a lot out there that’s moveable, and they’re mostly independents. At this stage of the game, for there to be that small a number of voters who are persuadable is extraordinary.”

Republican pollster Brent McGoldrick said that McCain must shed the hard partisanship he has adopted of late in order to appeal to those independents.

“There’s a sense among Republicans and independents that they would like to see the old free-wheeling, maverick McCain,” he said.

Speaking of McCain’s acceptance speech, McGoldrick added: “In order to change the game, McCain has to come pretty close to making Republicans like me cringe when he separates himself from Bush … On Friday morning … people have to understand that he’s a maverick.”