FEC Fines Ark. Law Firm For Donations to Edwards

The poll found that 53 percent of the students surveyed believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared with 38 percent who felt that way in a similar poll last year. Two-thirds are worried about their future, the poll said.

College students have a low opinion of Congress, with only a third saying that most lawmakers are honest and trustworthy. They have an equally low opinion of President Bush, with 66 percent voting against his job performance and 29 percent endorsing it.

And while 54 percent say the economy is excellent or good, they don't have a rosy view of the future: Just 44 percent believe they will be financially better off than their parents.

Panetta said college students "are sensing that Washington is not dealing with" the crucial issues and that "frustration with the inability of those elected to solve these problems is reflected in their apathy."

He also faulted both major parties for failing to reach out to young voters and instead playing to their political bases. "They really don't want to register young people to vote," he said, "because they don't know how they are going to vote."

Tex. Independents on Ballot

Two candidates in Texas are trying to make this a Sam Houston kind of year.

The state announced last week that two independent gubernatorial candidates have gained places on the November ballot, prompting a four-way showdown among Gov. Rick Perry (R), Democrat Chris Bell and the independents: Kinky Friedman, a musician, and state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the mother of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

Sam Houston was the last independent governor in Texas, elected in 1859. Friedman and Keeton Strayhorn are polling respectably. In a four-way race, Perry takes 37.7 percent of the vote, Bell 19.7 percent, Friedman 17.5 and Keeton Strayhorn 14.1, according to a recent Zogby/Wall Street Journal poll.

"Not one but two viable independent candidates have made the ballot for the first time in nearly 150 years," Friedman said in a statement. "This tells us what we've long suspected: The two-party system has failed our state."