Our graders for the weekly presidential report card found in a slow week for President Obama problems that are sure to chip away at his legacy.
John Zogby
The White House release of how many civilians — up to 116 — have been killed by authorized drone attacks overseas was surely not good news for liberals who support Mr. Obama.
At the same time, the numbers of Americans who have applied for jobless benefits have ticked up, although experts argue that these applications are still fairly low. Otherwise, a slow week on the news side — certainly no Brexit again.
Grade C
Jed Babbin
It was a slow week for President Obama but not for his attorney general. Loretta Lynch met privately with the husband of a woman under criminal investigation by the FBI and may thus have assured herself a Supreme Court appointment if that woman is elected president. By pure coincidence, the Justice Department — 48 hours later — filed a federal court motion to delay for 27 months release of emails between Clinton State Department staffers and both the Clinton Foundation and Teneo, a PR firm connected to it.
Obama did better than last week in the court, especially when the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that limited abortion clinics on the basis of doctors’ hospital connections and other factors.
A Homeland Security Department report mandated, again, the politically correct line Obama favors. It found that terms such as “jihad” and “sharia” shouldn’t be used in trying to counter terrorist radicalism among youths.
Obama attended another “Three Amigos” summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. Though he didn’t go as far as his remark a few years ago that Islam had always been a part of American history, Obama spoke of the enormous strengths we draw from our relationship with Mexico. The Amigos each answered the same four questions in the inevitable post-summit presser. Three of the questions were about Donald Trump.
Grade D-
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him @jedbabbin
John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author of “We Are Many, We Are One.” Follow him at @TheJohnZogby
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
