President Obama had another busy week, releasing his latest gun control executive action, watching his namesake Obamacare take a hit in the House, and juggling international troubles. It ended with some good news on jobs.
For the first time, this week we are adding another voice to our report card, Examiner contributor and former Pentagon official Jed Babbin. He will join with our original grader, pollster and author John Zogby, for a kind of point, counterpoint analysis of the president’s week.
Let us know if you like it. Send suggestions to [email protected]
First up, our regular John Zogby who finds that Obama hit it out of the park this week:
“President Obama ended 2016 on a high note and begins 2016 on the bully pulpit. In what normally is a lame duck year for an incumbent, this president is aggressive and commanding the national agenda.
“Opponents beware. He is winning on gun control and the polls show that. He is the only figure who can generate enthusiasm among the Democratic base and this base — notably young men and women of color and voters in the Creative Class — are with him on guns. He has deftly defined this issue, owns it, and is able to hammer his own party’s candidates to support him at that own risk going into the election. The December job report shows that the economy grew by a better than expected 292,000 and the unemployment rate stayed at 5% because more people are looking for jobs. Mr. Obama is winning.”
Grade — A
Next, new contributor Jed Babbin who finds Obama weak on foreign policy and guns:
“Following on to his biggest failures last year, Obama began another ‘meh’ week. Fearing Iran’s reaction might sink his dangerous deal on nukes, Obama again didn’t stand up to the mullahs, delaying sanctions for its two big deal missile tests over the past two months. The Saudi-Iranian crisis was on the verge of open warfare but when Obama felt around for some strings to pull, there weren’t any. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb and, again, Obama was stuck for response.
“It was no better on the domestic side. His gun control orders won’t stop any murders or terrorist attacks. All they’ll do is make it harder for law-abiding Americans to buy and sell guns. And the report put new jobs relatively high, but there are still 94 million Americans who have quit looking, making the official unemployment rate far lower than the real rate.
Grade — D-
Analyst John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author (with Joan Snyder Kuhl) of “The First Globals: Understanding, Managing, and Unleashing our Millennial Generation.” 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].
