This week’s Weekly White House Report Card finds our graders feeling a little better about President Obama. Pollster John Zogby found positives in the first family’s last State Dinner, where they projected a “genuine elegance.” And Jed Babbin gave a thumbs up for the president’s order allowing a few more Cuban cigars into the U.S.
John Zogby
Another mixed week. Jobless claims ticked up while the long-awaited attack aiming to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS has begun. It is universally projected that ISIS will be defeated but no one really knows what happens next. Russian warships headed toward Syria via the English Channel kicked up a lot of dust within NATO. How does this one end up?
Meanwhile, President Obama’s polling numbers remain solid and his wife’s are much better. Together, even their worst detractors must admit, they made a stunning presence at their final state dinner on behalf of Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Mrs. Renzi. The Obamas project a genuine elegance and remain a powerful role model as First Family.
Grade B
Jed Babbin
President Obama had what is, for him, a pretty good week. Bashing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for “whining” about the election being rigged was good fun that the Mainstream Media made much of after Trump’s statement in the third presidential debate that he’d wait to see the results before deciding to accept them. (The media have conveniently forgotten the mess Al Gore started after the 2000 election that was finally decided by the Supreme Court). The rest of the media’s week was spent on the first lady’s dress at the last state dinner the Obamas will have held.
The president’s minions certified more terrorists to be releasable from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mauritanian prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Taliban recruiter and committed jihadist, was cleared to return to his native country despite the obvious danger in doing so.
Cuban-Americans, angered at the president’s attempts to reconcile with Cuba’s Castro regime, must have been further enraged by Obama’s executive order this week which made it lawful for Americans returning to our country from anywhere overseas to bring with them up to $100 worth of Cuban cigars. (A previous order provided that they could only be brought back from trips to Cuba.) It’s mostly good news for American smokers going abroad. It’s only “mostly” good news because many of the already-legal Dominican cigars are as good or better than the Havanas, which have suffered in recent years from inconsistency in manufacturing and pricing. Some of us will take our chances and light up the Montecristos that were JFK’s favorites. They’re a pretty darned good smoke.
Grade C
John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author of “We Are Many, We Are One.” Follow him at @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him @jedbabbin
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
