White House Report Card: A bad one and many more coming

As bad, he doesn’t appear to be doing anything to reverse course. Republicans, meanwhile, have increased their infighting over a 2022 agenda and just how bad Jan. 6 was.

“Not a good week,” said our Democratic grader, pollster John Zogby, who graded Biden’s week a C-. Conservative grader Jed Babbin, who gave it a D+, said that “incompetence” rules the White House.

And a footnote to the week: The list of Republicans now calling on Biden to take a cognitive test has reached 37.

John Zogby
Grade C-

Another dismal report on inflation this week prompted rumors that the Federal Reserve may convene earlier and raise interest rates more dramatically and quickly than they had previously suggested.

A protest at the border between Canada and the U.S. shows how fragile our supply chains really are and how helpless our leaders may be in dealing with major disruption.

The numbers of new COVID-19 cases are down, but we are on the lookout for several new variants. Confusion reigns over the efficacy of one of the vaccines for children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship causing further angst.

We can no longer gather at the water cooler and talk about the Olympics because there are no more water coolers, people are working at home, and no one is watching the Olympics anyway.

Since the president has gone on the road, held new conferences, sat down with Lester Holt of NBC, and taken control of his own messages, his polling numbers have not moved. Not a good week.

Jed Babbin
Grade D+

Biden’s week was a cacophony of errors and absurdity, which is to say his new normal, punctuated by one very good action and more than a few that were dismally bad.

Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn, which is how we must view the Biden administration’s approval of the sale of $100 million in Patriot missiles to Taiwan this week. Those missiles won’t protect the island democracy completely from Chinese aggression, but they will strengthen it and demonstrate America’s commitment to protecting it. China, of course, vociferously protested the sale, meaning that Biden may slow it or cancel it altogether.

That was the high point, and the continued acceleration of inflation (now, at more than 7%, a 40-year high) was the low point. Biden just doesn’t understand that his reckless spending is the cause or that inflation’s effect is a direct tax on everyone, including those who can least afford it.

Otherwise, there were a ton of mistakes. Biden is wagging the dog over Ukraine while Putin is biding his time and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was calling for calm. Blue-state governors are lifting their COVID-19 mask requirements, but Biden is insisting on doing whatever Dr. Anthony Fauci tells him to do. Meanwhile, a grant by the Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly funding “safe smoking kits” for drug addicts that include crack pipes, and the Department of Homeland Security labeled as domestic terrorism any false or misleading “narrative” as a terrorist threat. DHS, of course, is the agency that would decide what is false or misleading, which means it wants to control free speech. It’s a blatant violation of the right to free speech under the First Amendment and begs to be challenged in court.

Remember Biden’s “over-the-horizon” strategy to counterterrorism in Afghanistan after his debacle withdrawing U.S. forces? Even the general nominated to be the new commander of Central Command doesn’t think it works. Incompetence uber alles in Biden’s White House.

John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll 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

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