This week’s White House report card finds President Joe Biden’s slightly improving polls and bold trip into Ukraine clouded by his bungled response to the rail chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.
His team’s reaction to the train crash has been so bad that Biden has been forced to repeatedly claim that his administration was on the case within two hours. Slow-walking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has received most of the blame, but Biden’s refusal to travel there makes it appear that the blue-collar president who used to ride trains home to Delaware daily just doesn’t care.
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For the record, on Friday night, Biden flew home alone to Delaware for the weekend. His wife is on a junket to Africa.
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded Biden a B- for the week and said the Ohio response spoiled an otherwise good week. Conservative grader Jed Babbin agreed to grade the week a D-.
John Zogby
Grade: B-
President Joe Biden’s job approval average this week is 47%, with one poll showing him at 49%.
He scored a major press coup with his secret 10-hour train ride into Kyiv to show a strong ,unified response against the Russian military escalation in Ukraine, then capped off the high-profile visit with a stirring speech to crowds gathered in Warsaw, Poland. His speech conjured up memories of Presidents Kennedy and Reagan in Berlin generations ago. He won bipartisan praise, including a National Review commentary stating that his visit and speech were in the finest American tradition.
A new poll gives him a score of 46% for handling the U.S. economy.
But real trouble is brewing at home with the actual and metaphorical train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. Two many questions about the late federal response and the absence until very late in the game from his administration’s point person, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Biden will probably recover, but it has become a partisan issue, and that is simply not good.
So my weekly wrap-up: Strong polling numbers, huge praise for his bold foreign policy, but tainted by a very poor no-show/late show in Ohio.
Jed Babbin
Grade: D+
This would have been a very good week for President Joe Biden if the only event was his trip to Ukraine. Unfortunately, he managed to show up again as the “divider-in-chief,” his hapless transportation secretary demonstrated his lack of competence on the Ohio train wreck, and there was, over the past couple of months, an 800% increase in the illegal aliens coming across our northern border.
Over the holiday-shortened week, the stock market dropped nearly 1,000 points thanks to the news that inflation had accelerated in January.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally showed up for a brief visit to East Palestine, Ohio, only to try to blame former President Trump for the disaster, citing changes in safety rules. Over two weeks ago, a train wreck spilled tons of hazardous chemicals, and some bright folks decided to burn them, creating a mushroom cloud over the town. Mayor Pete only showed up after: (1) the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied emergency relief, and (2) FEMA changed its mind after Trump showed up to hand out bottled water and bash Biden’s crew.
Biden’s visit to Ukraine was a big success. Or was it? He walked around Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promised another $500 million in aid. After that, Trump said we should reduce aid to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled out of the new START nuclear arms deal, and NATO allies France, Germany, and the United Kingdom said that there should be some security guarantees for Ukraine, but only after a peace deal is reached. Any peace deal will, of course, give up Ukrainian territory and give Russia more time to rearm, feed in more troops and resume fighting.
In midweek, Biden was caught off-mic after he spoke about the Chinese spy balloon. The hot mic caught him asking, “…did anybody believe that bulls*t?” Few did. Secretary of State Tony Blinken was scolded by his Chinese counterpart, who said Biden had a “hysterical” reaction to the balloon.
Earlier in the week, Biden, who professes to be a great unifier, spoke about Black History Month and said that there are still people who want to lynch blacks. Really? Who?
Apparently, the drug cartels, while making millions of dollars smuggling people across our southern border, are now being joined by others who are smuggling thousands over our border with Canada. The reported 800% increase in illegals coming in through Canada represents a staggering number that won’t get smaller while Biden is in office. We now have crises on both borders, each created by Biden’s open-border policy.
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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
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
