The Generic Ballot Question

There's a meme (too prevalent to link to: but includes Krugman, Brooks, etc.) that Obama must be doing something wrong because he's underperforming the "generic Democrat," who's winning in a landslide. I used to think they polled a counterfactual about the Presidential election, but it turns out the actual question is:

If the election for the U.S. House of Representatives were being held today, would you vote for (the Democratic candidate) or (the Republican candidate) in your congressional district?

Now put that together with this snippet describing this year's Republican candidates. Isn't it plausible that at least some of that Republican weakness has to do with the godawfulness of their congressional candidates?