SALENA ZITO: Battleground States Of Resentment: “Whether it is called General Lee Highway, as in Virginia, or Molly Pitcher Highway, as in Pennsylvania, the lives and economic strain along U.S. Route 11 tell of a country’s disappointment with Washington – specifically, with President Obama. . . . Not so long ago, populist-Democrat rhetoric was popular here and farther up the road, in West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Americans along such roads all across the country are struggling economically. They are consumed with uncertainty. And they have tuned-out the president.”

Plus this: “Obama took to pointing fingers when his poll numbers started to slip last fall. So far, he has blamed the stagnant economy on ATMs, ditches, Slurpees, corporate-jet owners, the Tea Party, Republicans, Japan’s earthquake, the Arab Spring, the Arab Summer, George Bush, and ‘fat-cat’ Wall Street something-or-others. The kitchen sink may be next. His numbers are tumbling in the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire – states he must win in 2012.”