AND NOW VIRGINIA - AT 9:17 P.M. ET:  Latest polling from Virginia confirms the trend we've seen elsewhere...the president's popularity is slipping.  From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

A new poll shows President Barack Obama’s popularity in Virginia has slipped below 50 percent.

The Public Policy poll of 617 likely general election voters showed Obama with a 48 percent approval rating, which is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

The survey showed 46 percent disapproval and 6 percent not sure.

The opinion is highly polarized, the poll shows, with 95 percent of Democrats but only 9 percent of Republicans viewing him favorably. Fifty-two percent of independents disapprove of his performance with only 38 percent approving.

COMMENT:  Virginia is a critical state.  It went for Obama last year, the first time in decades that Virginia went Republican in a presidential race.  Democrats have to be alarmed at the slippage that's occurred since inauguration. 

This can get much, much worse for Obama unless the economy turns around.  We'll get the usual hype about economic indicators, amplified by the amen corner in the nation's media.  But there's one thing about the economy - average citizens see it every day.  And they don't like what they're seeing.

Foreign crises usually boost presidential popularity, but this president's botched, sometimes casual handling of North Korea, Iran and Latin America has not done a thing for his standing, except to hurt it.

As we've said before, 2010 is shaping up as the most important midterm election in recent history.

July 8, 2009