The weekly White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden continuing to struggle with his own party over the nearly $5 trillion infrastructure and social welfare program, the national debt, jobs, and inflation.
Both of our graders found fault with the president. Democratic pollster John Zogby suggested that Biden is on the verge of failure, though he did note a partial victory in getting a temporary deal to extend the debt limit debate. He also asked, “Are voters giving up on him?”
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Conservative analyst Jed Babbin, back in the saddle after a brief break, said he was surprised that Biden’s pattern of flubs didn’t take any time off.
John Zogby
GRADE: C-
We have seen this before: the sense that a president is losing control of the situation.
Without going too far back, Lyndon Johnson decided not to run again. Richard Nixon lost his “political base” and resigned. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon way too soon. Jimmy Carter struggled with Iran, stagflation, and malaise. Both Bushes had troubles, the first throwing up on the Japanese prime minister, the second getting shellacked by both war and the economy. Barack Obama dropped congressional seats in 2010 and 2014 faster than drones. And Donald Trump was Donald Trump.
Biden is not there. Yet.
Biden did get a forced victory with an extension of the debt limit this week, but the metrics are not good. His approval average is 43%, and 61% feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Job creation announced Friday was 194,000, far below expectations. Inflation is moving toward the runaway definition (at least to consumers). And he cannot whip his own party into an agreement on his signature revitalization program.
Voters are giving Biden lower marks, but he can still be saved with a victory. That needed victory was elusive this past week. Are voters giving up on him?
Jed Babbin
GRADE: F
Having been away for two report cards, I’m amazed at how much Biden messed up in so short a time. Biden’s popularity has reportedly fallen to 38%, which only proves that 38% of America doesn’t have a clue about what’s really going on.
Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal debacle left hundreds of Americans and thousands of our Afghan allies behind. It’s beyond shameful that Biden and his people have already forgotten them.
The border crisis continues to worsen. “Catch and release,” the policy under which illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol are released, supposedly to appear in court at a later date, increased in the number of people released by 430,000% over last year. Sixty thousand Haitians are reportedly headed to our border and will also be admitted. Meanwhile, unvetted Afghans, some of the people we evacuated apparently by mistake, are just leaving the military bases where they are supposedly confined. Twenty-six state governors have asked for a meeting with Biden on the border crisis. They continue to wait for an answer.
And then, there’s the president saying that incidents such as the one in which Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was pursued into a bathroom and harassed were just a “part of the process.” He’s encouraging the form of radicalism that’s one short step from violence.
Biden continues to insist that his $3.5 trillion socialist spending bill will cost “zero dollars.” That’s like an arsonist saying the fire he started won’t cost anything because insurance will pay to rebuild the factory he burned down despite the hundreds of people who will be unemployed until it’s rebuilt.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland is weaponizing the FBI and pointing it at parents who protest at school board meetings. And, from the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department, Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova, is a graduate of Moscow State University who attended on a Lenin scholarship. She’s opposed to the U.S. banking system she’s nominated to regulate. She apparently wants to remake it on the old Soviet model. And #Bidenflation rages on, taking at least $175/month out of middle-class family pockets. It’s going to get a lot worse.
It’s no wonder that the “f*** Joe Biden” mantra is the popular chant at NASCAR races, political rallies, and college football games.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
