This week’s White House Report Card proves that sometimes presidents can win the week just by letting the other side wallow in their woes.
That’s what President Joe Biden did, watching from 16 blocks away the drawn-out and demoralizing fight over electing House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy as the speaker of the new majority. After 15 rounds, a politically bruised McCarthy got the job last night.
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For his part, Biden was buoyed by another good jobs report, a slight increase in his approval rating, a bipartisan trip with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to tout infrastructure spending, and his first stab at doing anything to solve the border crisis.
Democratic pollster John Zogby cited those in grading the president an “A” for the week.
Biden also faced some problems. The border crossing numbers were bad again, he moved to reinstate wetland regulations, he saw a court reject the ban on bump stocks for AR-style firearms, and he bumbled the date of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, referring to “July 6” in an event to reward those who stopped the protesters.
Conservative Jed Babbin cited the border woes and regulations in grading a D-.
Jed Babbin
Grade D-
Vacationing in St. Croix on New Year’s Day, Biden said, “Good year next year. Looking forward to it.” Maybe he meant 2024.
Biden said this week that he might visit our southern border, which would be a first since he became president. Since Oct. 1, at least 844,000 illegal immigrants have come over it. That doesn’t count the ones who got away and didn’t turn themselves in to Border Patrol.
There were reportedly 98 people on the terrorist watch list who were captured. An unknown number of terrorists weren’t caught. That ties in nicely with Biden’s action in taking U.S. air marshals off flying duty and deploying many of them to the border to help “process” illegal immigrants. Air Marshal National Council Executive Director Sonya Labosco said: “Our aviation is a high-risk area. We’re not protecting our aviation domain, and we’re going to the border. It is absolutely madness.” Biden’s move is an open invitation to terrorists to create another 9/11-style attack that could again kill thousands.
Biden says wrong day at January 6 ceremony honoring officers, remembers ‘what happened on July 6’ https://t.co/JzgffnhTwV
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 7, 2023
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas repeated his oft-stated claim that the southern border is secure. Does he think anybody believes that nonsense?
Biden was boosted this week by the Republicans’ disarray in the House. It was a dumpster fire that bodes ill for Republican effectiveness in the next two years. He was also helped by McConnell posing for pictures with him in Kentucky.
Meanwhile, the Biden crew is going nuts imposing huge regulations (and their costs) on businesses, including farmers. One new regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency tries to include farm ponds and streams in the “navigable” waters, giving the agency power to fine farms and other businesses when they determine the water isn’t pure enough. Biden’s new “Unified Regulatory Agenda” reportedly includes 332 regulations, each of which will cost at least $100 million per year. This probably exceeds former President Barack Obama’s wave of red tape that former President Donald Trump tried to cut back.
The economy shows that car sales are the slowest in a decade and manufacturing generally is declining at the fastest rate since the COVID days of 2020. No wonder economists are predicting a big recession this year. The only thing preventing this week’s grade from being an “F” is the House Republicans’ display of utter ineptness in the House speaker voting mess.
John Zogby
Grade A
Two things make for a good week. Good news for your side and terrible news for the other side.
The jobs report this week was very good. The percentage of people working was up and the percentage not working was down. Some 230,000 new jobs were created last month, postponing the “inevitable” recession. The unemployment rate was down again to 3.5% — marking the 10th straight month that the rate has been between 3.5% and 3.7%. The average hourly wage rate was up slightly, but up nonetheless.
President Joe Biden got to act on the world stage by working with allies to assist Ukraine. He is now focusing on the border crisis while thousands are crossing the border to look for jobs that no one here wants.
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Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, a handful of radicals worked overtime to give travesty a bad name. To make matters worse for new Speaker Kevin McCarthy, McConnell drove the bipartisan bus over him.
And Biden’s approval rate was 47% for the week.
Trafalgar, where are you when the GOP needs you?
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 managing partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
