Siena Poll: Worst "Wrong Direction New York" Number Ever; Paterson Surges to 31% Approval

There's a new Siena Poll, and guess what? Respondents say New York is headed in the wrong direction "by the largest margin ever," 63-24. It is thought the Albany Coup has thus decreased their confidence, as 84 percent think the catastrophe "will make it harder to pass important legislation," and the state senate is at a record high unfavorable rating of 62. The assembly also has a record high unfavorable rating of 47 percent, despite Sheldon Silver's best efforts. Silver himself has the highest unfavorable rating (37 percent) among politicians Siena asked about -- even higher than that of Pedro Espada (33 percent), though Espada has a don't-know factor of 54 percent, despite our best efforts.

Few politicians meet with the respondents' approval; oddly, one of the winners here, relatively speaking, is Governor Paterson, who for the first time since November saw his favorable rating tick up to an impressive 31 percent. This still compares very, very badly to that of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, at a record-high 71 percent favorable rating, and Cuomo beats Paterson in a prospective Governor's race, as does everyone else Siena asked about, even Rudolph Giuliani. We wonder if Siena has considered matching Paterson against Hitler or Osama bin Laden, just to keep it interesting.