Malaise: This week, the Commerce Department announced that the U.S. economy grew just 1.8% in the first quarter of this year. The same report also found that inflation rose to 3.8%. Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate stands at 8.8% and the Labor Department announced this week that weekly jobless claims increased by 25,000 to 429,000, the highest number since January. Wal-Mart’s CEO told CNN Wednesday the retail giant’s core shoppers are “running out of money.”

And many of those shoppers are telling pollsters that they have no faith in President Obama. A Marist Poll released yesterday found that 40% of registered voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy. Nearly six in ten, 57%, say they disapprove. The numbers are even worse among independents, only 34% of whom approve of Obama on the economy. The numbers at the state level are just as bad. In Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Obama in 2012, a Quinnipiac poll found that Obama’s approval rating has sunk to 42%, an all time low for the state. A record 53% disapprove.