Is this surprising to anyone?
The give a list of well known liberals, people who say they aren't running, and people who most who have never been heard of, and who get the highest ratings? Well known moderate Republicans.
The thing about approval ratings and whatnot, is democrats tend to naturally score higher. NOt becuase they do anything better, but its because i believe that most republican voters are less partisan then their democrat counterparts. Republican voters are more likely to admit a democrat is doing a good job versus a democrat voter saying that about a republican.
For example, in the surveyusa poll, dems tend to universally have much higher approval ratinsg then republicans, yet some of them when it comes down to will you vote for them poll much weaker. Dems on the other hand wont vote for the republican, and wont admit hes doing a good job.
Another example is presidential debate polls. Most all the time you'll never see a republican coming out way on top like you have democrats(the gallup poll), because to most democrats they always win the debate(look at the edwards vs cheney one for an obvious one where we clearly won), yet polls showed it quite polarized. Yet when a republican does poorly, were more likely to admit he lost.