This week’s Quinnipiac Poll, showing Obama’s approval rating tumbling to 49 percent in Ohio – with 48 percent giving him a “failing grade” on the economy — has had a big effect on the conventional wisdom in Washington.

Today’s New York Times declares, “With unemployment already at 9.5 percent and likely to exceed 10 percent, much higher than White House officials predicted back in February, Mr. Obama has been facing attacks that his $787 billion stimulus program was either too timid or wrong-headed or both. Now, just five months after Congress agreed on the plan, with only a fraction of the money actually out the door, Washington is debating the need for a second round of stimulus amid economic and political crosscurrents. In Ohio, where unemployment is above 10 percent and where Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will visit on Thursday, Mr. Obama’s popularity has dropped sharply. In a poll by Quinnipiac University earlier this week, 48 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy, while 46 percent approved, down 11 percentage points since May.”

It’s easy to begin to wonder if we’re making too much out of one poll. But as Fred Bauer illustrates, state poll after state poll shows a falling approval rating for Obama with majorities or pluralities of independents disapproving — New York, New Mexico, Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon . . .