ALBANY - Keep Occupying Wall Street, New York voters say in another poll.
A Siena College survey released today found 58 percent of state voters felt Occupy Wall Street protesters "represent the 99 percent of people that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the remaining one percent" while 27 percent disagreed, saying the protesters are copying those in Egypt with the potential to cause riots.
A Quinnipiac University poll of New York City residents released yesterday also found strong support for the protesters.
President Obama, meantime, maintained his double-digit lead over his leading potential Republican challengers, including Herman Cain, in the Siena survey.
The Oct. 10-12 telephone poll of 800 registered voters around the state found that by 49-28 percent voters say they would join the Occupy Wall Street movement over the Tea Party movement if they had to join one.
Wall Street got a 24-67 percent unfavorable rating, including majorities of voters across the political and demographic spectrum.
By 49-38, respondents viewed Occupy Wall Street favorably; by 28-60, they viewed the Tea Party unfavorably.
Majorities of Republicans and conservatives viewed Occupy Wall Street unfavorably and the Tea Party favorably. Independents were evenly divided on the protesters, while a plurality of suburbanites held an unfavorable view of the movement.
Obama's 55-43 percent favorability rating was up slightly from 52-45 percent in Siena's September poll, but his 38-62 percent job performance rating was down from 40-61 percent last month. Additionally, 71-22 percent of voters think the nation is headed in the wrong direction - including African-Americans by 48-39.
The good news for the first-term Democrat is that African-Americans retain a strong favorable view of him - 89-7 percent, as do Latinos by 76-19.
And poll respondents viewed his potential 2012 GOP challengers unfavorably - Texas Gov. Rick Perry 18-53, down from 21-45 percent; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 34-45 percent, up from 30-46 percent; and businessman Cain 25-32 percent.
While Obama would only win re-election next year 48-45 percent over "someone else" in blue New York, he led Perry 58-31 percent (up from 56-33 percent last month), Romney 55-37 percent (down from 56-36 percent), and Cain 58-32 percent.
“The President’s ratings continue to be very strong with Democrats, very negative with Republicans, and virtually evenly divided among independents,” said poll spokesman Steven Greenberg, who noted that Obama led among independents anywhere from 13 and 21 points over the three potential 2012 challengers.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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