It's not the message

It's the messenger:

The Occupy Wall Street movement is not wearing well with voters across the country. Only 33% now say that they are supportive of its goals, compared to 45% who say they oppose them. That represents an 11 point shift in the wrong direction for the movement's support compared to a month ago when 35% of voters said they supported it and 36% were opposed. Most notably independents have gone from supporting Occupy Wall Street's goals 39/34, to opposing them 34/42...

The "goals" of OWS, to the extent they existed, are not what the public's perception has changed about. People still don't like corporate greed or bailouts or Goldman Sachs. The problem with OWS is the same problem the Republicans have with every poll that shows a 'generic' Republican thumping Obama: The Great Generic Republican doesn't exist, but Mitt Romney does. The Great Generic OWS Protest doesn't exist, either.  What exists are a bunch of smelly hippies crapping in parks and passing scabies and ringworm around a drum circle.

But the interesting thing to me is the difference between the public's perception of the Tea Party and OWS*, given the difference in the press' approach to the two. The Tea Parties were allegedly full of violent armed racists, but nobody managed to get shot or raped at any of their hundreds of rallies. OWS protests are almost uniformly described as peaceful, but daily there seems to be a new shooting or rape at an OWS somewhere.

I suspect the longer OWS goes on, the longer these surprising poll trends are will continue.

* "...the movement with independents is notable- from preferring Occupy Wall Street 43-34, to siding with the Tea Party 44-40."