Here is a piece of data that may or may not surprise you

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. What concerns me is they may try and turn the election season into a way to polarize people against

Occupy --

Dems because if there's a rally round the flag mentality that "now is election time to get serious -- the economy is improving and we need to stop calling down misfortune"

Republicans because one of the reasons it's so popular is that Obama's in charge, so it's implicitly critical of Dems not just Republicans; with the prospect of a Republican in charge all but the most pissed off tea partiers will rally round the flag and purge dissidents and accuse them of minimizing the differences between Romney and Obama, like the Naderites on the left. In fact, the Ron Paul wing could turn out to be the Nader of 2012.

The silver lining would be if Gingrich or Santorum is the candidate -- a polarizing figure that everypony can't stand except for the most hateful constituents (the ones who hate Occupy anyway -- the ones who boycott the Girl Scouts and so forth)