A sign of the growing political potency and media taking notice of the Occupy Wall Street protests: Obama got back-to-back questions about it at his press conference just now.

The protest “expresses frustrations the American people feel,” he said. “The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.”

He also defended the country’s “strong financial sector,” what we might call a bit of triangulation between his progressive base and the monied interests he’s worked so hard not to (totally) alienate.