With August poll ratings for the president and Congress in a tailspin after the messy debt deal and a report of stagnant job creation, GOP leaders are breaking out their olive branches.

Indeed, the rhetoric of the top two House leaders, Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), has softened since the August recess, when many of their Members were confronted at home by constituents fed up with Washington, D.C., and concerned primarily with unemployment.

For example, the GOP leadership’s early reaction to President Barack Obama’s jobs speech outlining a new $447 billion package was skeptical, but far from the usual harsh broadsides many have come to expect.

Cantor appeared to go out of his way to look for common ground with the president after his address to Congress on enacting free trade agreements, on reforming unemployment insurance and even on accelerating infrastructure investments. The leadership team also sent a conciliatory letter to the White House Friday asking the president to submit his bill and promising it would receive consideration from House committees.

“There’s definitely a change in the rhetoric — it remains to be seen whether there’s going to be a change in policy,” said Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio). He attributed the change to Members listening to voters in August.