Last week, I noticed this blog comment: "Romney was not my first, second, or third choice, but I will crawl over ground glass to vote for him."

A lot of Republicans -- and, judging from polls, a lot of independents -- feel this way. If there are enough of them, Romney will win, and win big.

Are there? Well, there are some signs. I've written here before that politics is all about showing up. And in recent months, people on the Right have been doing a lot of showing up. They've showed up at Romney-Ryan events in unprecedented numbers. They made Dinesh D'Souza's "2016: Obama's America" a huge hit despite a virtual blackout from traditional media. They stood in line for hours at Chick-fil-A restaurants to buy chicken sandwiches in response to politicians' bullying. They packed houses at the "Hating Breitbart" premiere.

Will they now pack the voting booths and vote for Romney, and against Obama, in similarly unprecedented numbers? If they do, Romney will win in a landslide.

It's hard to judge from the polls and the pundits. Last year, we were told that Romney couldn't win unless he could appeal to independents. Now that he's got a double-digit lead among independents in most polls, we're told that it doesn't matter.

Political junkies look to last-minute revelations and scandals, to shifts in the news narratives, and to ad buys and travel schedules. And all those things matter. But in the end, it always comes down to who shows up to vote.