This week’s weekly White House report card finds pollster John Zogby focused on the very positive approval rating for President Obama while Jed Babbin turns to the disappointing jobs report and killing of a Navy SEAL by ISIS.
John Zogby
President Obama is averaging 50 percent job approval for the first week of May and he is the most popular national political figure in either party. So when he speaks he has some juice.
Thus far, Mr. Obama is not enamored with Donald Trump, is speaking out more about him than on behalf of his presumptive successor, Hillary Clinton. That speaks volumes.
But neither he nor Clinton are out of the woods just yet. She faces a thumping during the campaign. And he still has a job that is proving to be a challenge until the day he leaves office.
Applications for jobless benefits are up again and April was a slower month for job creation than expected. The national economy grew only an annual pace of 0.5 percent during the first quarter.
But he is still at 50 percent.
Grade C+
Jed Babbin
President Obama was pretty quiet this week, but his administration’s actions spoke loudly. The third American to die for Obama’s failed anti-ISIS strategy, a Navy SEAL, was killed this week. Obama’s strategy was dealt another serious blow when followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr temporarily seized the Iraqi parliament.
Obama’s “regulation nation,” his parade of government-imposed costs reportedly burdens America to the tune of $1.9 trillion per year. According to the International Monetary Fund, that’s more than the GDP of several nations including Russia, Brazil and Canada. Terrorist Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri, believed to be one of the perpetrators of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that took the lives of seventeen American sailors, was released from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the Navajo nation was up in arms about a new EPA regulation which threaten closure of its coal-fired electricity generation plant, not for pollution but to improve visibility. The new regs would supposedly improve tourists’ ability to see the Grand Canyon.
Friday’s poor jobs report said that only 160,000 jobs were added in April, far below expectations. Obama’s oxymoronic “jobless recovery” continues.
Grade D-
John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author of the upcoming, “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]
