But this was really interesting (emphasis mine):
...a Democratic research firm spent part of last week quietly focus grouping the political skills and attributes of Kaine and Gov. Mark Warner last week, two people familiar with the results say.One of the sources said that the Obama campaign had conducted the tests; the other source would not disclose the identity of the organization conducting the focus groups but did agree to confirm the results.
The sources do not have direct ties to either Kaine or Warner, to the Democratic National Committee or to the Obama campaign.
They said that the focus group was held in a conference room in Norfolk, a city in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region, a huge swing area of the state.
Warner came off well; Kaine did not, with respondents saying that he lacks substantive accomplishments and kisses up too much to Obama.
No comment from the Obama campaign, but even if it was a campaign-connected firm -- pollster Joel Benenson has done regular work in Virginia, perhaps they testing to see whether Kaine or Warner should be featured in television advertisement.