White House Report Card: Jobs and lobster offset by collusion tweets

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He got good and unexpected news about job creation, though it could result in a higher interest rate and a recession hangover.

And he seemed to have a good time partying with the French first family over lobster and caviar at his first state dinner. What’s more, a video showed how French President Emmanuel Macron helped Biden through his ever-increasing confusion. And on Friday, in Boston, he met with Britain’s Prince William.

But then, Friday arrived with Musk, through journalist Matt Taibbi, releasing tweets that suggested Team Biden’s role in getting the social media company to kill reports of the scandalous Hunter Biden computer before the 2020 election.

Before that hit, our graders were split as usual. Conservative analyst Jed Babbin dished a D+ and noted how the president had failed to speak out forcefully for democracy protesters in China or Iran. Democratic pollster John Zogby gave an A+ due to the jobs report, the prevention of a rail strike, and the passage of a gay marriage protection bill.

Jed Babbin
Grade D+

Biden actually did something to help our economy: his push to prevent a national rail strike. But the week also continued his failure to speak on behalf of Chinese and Iranian protesters, his war on U.S. energy production, and he tossed in a few big lies to round things out.

Biden asked Congress to intervene, pursuant to the old Railway Labor Act, to bar a railroad strike. That briefly angered his labor friends but will prevent the already struggling economy from getting any worse. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Biden’s 40-year highest rate of inflation was caused by the country “splurging” on purchases during the pandemic. Wait, what? The only thing people were “splurging” on during the COVID-19 crisis were masks, antivirals, and Tylenol.

Biden’s remarks, and those of his press secretary, puzzled a lot of people. For example, in some confusion, he suggested that he was unsure of running for reelection. And then, his spokeswoman claimed wrongly that the president had been to the southern border.

While all this was going on, Biden lifted some sanctions on Venezuela, enabling oil imports from that nation and helping Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. He could, and should, instead have resumed at least part of the U.S. oil production he has stopped. Why help a socialist dictator when our oil production would help?

At about the same time, Biden was deploying many federal air marshals to the border, presumably to help process the flood of illegal immigrants. Some are threatening to ignore the order, saying that Biden is radically increasing the possibility of another 9/11-style attack by taking them off the airliners.

To cap off the week, Biden continues to not speak out in favor of Chinese or Iranian freedom protesters. The Chinese, en masse, are protesting Xi Jinping’s COVID-19 lockdowns. Iranians, by the thousands, are protesting the death of a young woman in police custody. There is no excuse for Biden not speaking out on their behalf and, at the very least, calling on China and Iran to stop beating, imprisoning, and killing the protesters. Doesn’t America stand for freedom anymore? With Biden in the White House, apparently not.

John Zogby
Grade A+

I spent kindergarten through four years of college in Catholic schools. I then taught four more years in a Catholic high school. A typical response to my greetings when I would pass priests, brothers, and nuns would be, “This is truly a day the Lord has made.”

This was one of those weeks for Biden. The economy created 233,000 new jobs, well beyond the expectations of economists, and the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. Wages rose, and spending rose 0.8%, enough to fuel solid holiday season spending. What’s more, the national average for a gallon at the pump fell to $3.47, back to what it was in February. And it is projected to go down to around $3 by Christmas. Also, jobless claims for last week were down again from the week before.

Biden even got to be presidential, hosting the president of France for a state dinner and defining the conversation and media coverage.

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My son’s poll has Biden’s approval rating at 45%, and four new polls have Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leading Republican Herschel Walker leading by 2 to 4 percentage points in Georgia. Three of those polls have Warnock at 50% or more.

The icing on Biden’s 80th birthday cake this week: the passage of two bipartisan pieces of legislation codifying same-sex marriage and averting a potentially devastating rail strike. In a world of headlines dominated by names such as Elon Musk, Ye, Alex Jones, and Vladimir Putin, there appears to be a force for dignity and stability: Biden. Truly a week the Lord made for the president.

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

John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and managing partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies