America and its "Pathetic" Voter Turnout on the Rise?

The United States has often been given a hard time about its poor voter turnout rates compared to other countries in the world, for example France and other European democracies. Surprisingly at an estimated 61.5% in 2008 we seem to be heading towards a direction of greater political interest as a whole. It will be interesting to see what the turnout is for 2012, especially as we are still amidst one of the most economically taxing periods of our history.