Our Weekly White House Report Card finds President Obama on cruise control and overshadowed by the presidential race and upcoming debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
John Zogby
On the eve of the Election Super Debate, I remind you that we still do have a president in office. And he is doing okay. President Obama’s overall approval ratings are still around 50 percent, and his marks on handling the economy and foreign policy are greatly improved as he enters the twilight months of his tenure. He will punch out the time clock pretty much the way he punched in almost eight years ago — battling Congress.
The president is in a tangle with the GOP over both a 9/11 bill that Mr. Obama feels threatens his Constitutional authority over foreign policy and U.S. relations with allies and he fights once again over funding the federal government. His veto of the former will probably be overridden by Congress, while the funding bill will probably hurt the GOP again if they allow it to continue to the brink.
The Syrian ceasefire did not hold but some aid at least got through to some people in Aleppo. Meanwhile, a Trump campaign volunteer chair and elector in Ohio told Americans that the country did not have a race problem until Mr. Obama became president. She was promptly evaporated by the Trump campaign — perhaps a signal of how Mr. Trump conducts problem-solving. For Mr. Obama, however, just another week at the office.”
Grade C+
Jed Babbin
The president had an enjoyable, but not praiseworthy, week. In his self-celebrating valedictory speech to the United Nations, President Obama said, “The world is by many measures less violent and more prosperous than ever before.” If he actually believes that, it would explain how his actions and inactions relate to the surging crisis of terrorism around the world as well as the wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the nuclear weapons and missile tests in North Korea. All that’s all before we get to our tottering economy and those of many of our allies. And that’s only the short list.
The American Action Forum’s study of Obama’s regulatory actions revealed that the Obama team has imposed 31 percent more regulations than the Bush administration, imposing $760 billion in new costs and 485 million hours per year of red tape on American businesses and citizens.
Meanwhile, the White House spokesman Josh Earnest, in the face of the Charlotte, N.C. riots, said that the president wants local authorities to ensure the safety of the “protesters,” saying they raised “legitimate issues” about racism in the criminal justice system. As usual, our presidential peace maker used his bully pulpit to divide rather than unify.
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]
