From Gallup:

Americans' desires for a third political party are as high as they have been in seven years*. Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe a third major political party is needed because the Republican and Democratic Parties do a poor job of representing the American people. That is a significant increase from 2008 and ties the high Gallup has recorded for this measure since 2003.* […] Though the rise in support for a third party could be linked to the Tea Party movement, Tea Party supporters are just about average in terms of wanting to see a third party created. Sixty-two percent of those who describe themselves as Tea Party supporters would like a third major party formed, but so do 59% of those who are neutral toward the Tea Party movement. Tea Party opponents are somewhat less likely to see the need for a third party. […] The desire for a third party is fairly similar across ideological groups, with 61% of liberals, 60% of moderates, and 54% of conservatives believing a third major party is needed. That is a narrower gap than Gallup has found in the past; conservatives have typically been far less likely than liberals and moderates to support the creation of a third party. […] Independents, as might be expected given their lack of primary allegiance to either of the two major parties, express a greater degree of support (74%) for a third party than do Republicans (47%) and Democrats (45%).

* I was puzzled why Americans were so pissed off in 2003, and clicking through the trend data [pdf] I see that Gallup seems to be misstating its results–the 58% number was previously matched in July 2007, while in October 2003 third-party sentiment was at 40 percent.

Link via Instapundit. As Nick Gillespie and I argue in the forthcoming book The Declaration of Independents, more and more Americans are realizing that the pendulum of two-party politics has put us in a Poe-like pit. Meanwhile, both parties (and their legions of sycophants in the commentariat) confuses each new swing in the other direction as either the harbinger of a "permanent governing majority" or an occasion to write off the voting public as irredeemably insane.

UPDATE: Some more interesting independent-polling flagged by The Wall Street Journal shows indies planning to vote GOP in the mid-terms despite not liking the party very much, and stressing an agenda of heavy fiscal libertarianism. Excerpt: