This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden winning praise from his fans for renewing the call for unity and mockery from his critics who just don’t buy it.
In his first State of the Union address, the president presented a “unity agenda” that his supporters praised and hoped would lay the groundwork for a comeback for the Democrats and president. He called it “a unity agenda for the nation. We can do these things. It’s within our power. And I don’t see a partisan edge” to its elements.
Critics, however, seized on the more hypocritical elements of his speech and agenda that included, for example, calling for a stronger border with Mexico and bragging on the economy, both of which they see as Biden-created disasters.
Democratic pollster John Zogby said that the president’s speech was received well enough to raise Biden’s approval rating. And the creation of 678,000 jobs last month also helped. “Biden had a good week,” he said in grading it a B-plus.
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin, however, saw nothing good in the week in which Russia moved further into Ukraine, a word salad from Vice President Kamala Harris on the crisis went viral, and gas prices spiked. “It was one of those weeks we must be glad is over,” he said in grading it an F.
Unity? Apparently not.
Jed Babbin
Grade F
It was one of those weeks we must be glad is over. From Biden’s appeasement of Russia to Harris’s pronouncements, it was another “wait, what?” week for the administration.
Someone proposed a drinking game for Biden’s State of the Union address in which you took a shot of whiskey for every lie spoken. If anyone was unwise enough to play, they’d have died of alcohol poisoning.
Biden essentially promised to make everything free. He said he’d cut the deficit and secure the border. He confused Ukrainians with Iranians and didn’t even call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the slaughter in Ukraine. He said we were stronger today than we were a year ago (with inflation the highest in 40 years, the Biden-created border crisis continuing to get worse, and Putin hinting at nuclear war). Naturally, he made no mention of his Afghanistan debacle.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
“Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically that’s wrong.” pic.twitter.com/EEA8vW252k
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 1, 2022
The one good thing he said in the address was that he was closing U.S. airspace to Russian aircraft, following the example of a dozen European countries. Biden, continuing to rely on Russia for help with another Iran nuclear deal, is busy appeasing his pal Vlad by buying about 600,000 barrels of Russian oil every day. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks that is a bad idea. Rumors say that the new Iran deal will be announced in the next few days with amazingly bad concessions to Iran without getting anything from Iran. And it will all be done without the legally required disclosures to Congress.
Kamala Harris: “When folks vote, they order what they want, and in this case they got what they asked for. I went off script a little bit.” pic.twitter.com/LBofC4sIM5
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 28, 2022
Harris’s sagacity was revealed twice. First, when she said voters “got what they asked for” when they voted for her and Biden. And her profound knowledge of foreign policy was best displayed in her explanation of Russia’s war on Ukraine. She said, “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.” And now Biden wants to send her to Europe to confer with world leaders on ending the Russian war?
Meanwhile, oil is heading to over $120 per barrel, up from about $65 a few months ago. Over 1 million refugees have already fled the Russian war on Ukraine, and millions more may soon follow.
John Zogby
Grade B+
Biden had a good week. His State of the Union speech opened on a note of national unity. In the face of a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden faced Republicans in the room and spoke to many who were actually backing him, at least in principle if not fully in policy.
While he turned partisan in laying out the need for his “Build Back Better” plan, he really was only speaking to one man, Democratic holdout Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. But the president got some points on the board during this part of the speech when two hostile Republican House members went off the rails with their lack of decorum and respect. Some fellow GOP legislators reprimanded them for their behavior.
The president also got better than expected good news on the economy as 678,000 new jobs were created last month, much better than the 440,000 that economists forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%.
Speaking of numbers, it looks like the State of the Union speech gave the president a significant bump in the polls. The last four polls put his average approval rating at 44%, with the latest at 47%. That is substantially higher than his 40% average at this time last week. These overall numbers are bolstered by a 52% approval rating of his handling of the Ukraine crisis.
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 partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
