Imagine how baffled the casual American voter must have felt on Thursday when the country’s best hope for a centrist third-party presidential option officially threw in the towel on the campaign.

In this year of all years.

The story of why No Labels believed it could mount a credible independent candidacy is so simple that it can be told entirely with numbers. First: Both major-party nominees are below 43 percent in favorability.

Second: The share of Americans who identify as independent stands at 43 percent, a solid plurality of the total electorate and tied for an all-time high.

Third: 63 percent of adults now say that the two major parties do such a poor job of representing their interests that a third party is needed. That’s the highest figure recorded by Gallup since it began asking the question in 2003.