On the curve, Kaine gets an A

Our monthly look at Tim Kaine's standing with the voters of Virginia finds 46% of them approving of his job performance and 38% disapproving.

That might not sound too great. But when you compare his popularity to that of other big state Governors he comes out looking pretty darn good.

There are eight states that are Virginia's size or larger where there is enough approval polling on the Governor for Pollster.com to have a chart on it and among those Kaine comes in second in popularity, well ahead of most of his colleagues. Here's the data:

State	Governor	Pollster.com Approval
Florida	Charlie Crist (R)	61/34
Virginia	Tim Kaine (D)	54/41
Ohio	Ted Strickland (D)	46/47
New Jersey	Jon Corzine (D)	37/57
Pennsylvania	Ed Rendell (D)	36/63
North Carolina	Bev Perdue (D)	29/54
California	Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)	28/66
New York	David Paterson (D)	23/73

Tim Kaine is quite possibly the most popular big state Democratic Governor in the country. He may not be overwhelmingly well liked by Virginians but he has avoided the dramatic tailspins in popularity that have befallen many of his colleagues. Right now steady approval would be a blessing for most Governors.

Full results of our poll here