A salient point, and you’re suspicion is most likely quite correct.
Though I’m always suspicious of polling, no matter where it comes from, there’s a possibility that the Occupiers crowd is getting their message across effectively, which would reflect in internal GOP polling, as you suggest. If that’s the case, then naturally the GOP is going to have a tip of the hat to public opinion, because they’re campaigning for their re-elections as well.
I really wish I had access to some of those numbers; it would prove enlightening to see in which direction the GOP will go. If the numbers are significantly in favor of the Occupiers, then I would postulate that, politically speaking, the GOP has nowhere to go but left in order to avoid alienating the general public. If a majority of Americans have indeed come to agree with the Occupiers, then Obama will (effectively) campaign on a left-populist platform.
Mind you, it’s hypothetical, but this nod in the direction of the Occupiers from Cantor is of some significance.
This is nothing of the kind. This is Cantor at his usual limp wristed whiney milk toast best.
This man is a caver. He is one of those “I am too much of a gentleman to fight for squat” party of ignorant politicians.
Cantor would not have shifted his position from “they are a mob” to “they have a valid point” in seven days if some internal pollsters had not come to him and gotten his mind right.