They’re stealing manhole covers for scrap in Philly…to protests, Starbucks is closing a store in Newark, New Jersey….food-stamp use is soaring in Massachusetts….

Around the country, the signs of this recession (regardless of what the administration says, let’s call a spade a spade) are manifest.

The silver lining? It’s good for Obama, who’s been having a good week on the foreign policy front even as he consistently seems more empathic than John McCain when it comes to economic suffering.