This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden ending a typically mediocre to bad week with COVID-19.
What started with hope over budget talks on Capitol Hill, a trip to the Middle East, and a new green energy push ended with little to show from Israel and Saudi Arabia, no budget deal, and a confusing promise for an “emergency” executive order on climate change that never came.
And then, the White House announced that Biden had COVID-19 despite being vaccinated and boosted, shots the president had previously promised the nation would make everyone virus-proof.
Democratic pollster John Zogby highlighted the president’s poor polling in grading a C-. Of his foreign trip, Zogby said the president “got nothing,” a surprise since, as a senator, Biden considered himself a foreign policy pro. The most memorable image was his controversial fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Our conservative grader, Jed Babbin, was away this week.
John Zogby
Grade: C-
There was no relief this week for Biden or his sinking polling numbers. A new survey just released on Friday has him back at 40% approval, and his overall average is down.
At the same time, Democrats seem to be making gains in the generic ballot for the 2022 congressional midterm elections, with two new polls showing them leading. Historically, Democrats need to be ahead by 5 percentage points to break even. The two new polls show the leading by 3 and 4 points, respectively. In short, they could be back in the game.
As for Biden, his trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia was, charitably, useless and gratuitous. He got nothing.
And then, the White House announced that Biden had COVID-19. No president can be said to have a good week and then come down with COVID. If that were the case, 90 million people have had good weeks. No!
On the other hand, gas prices have been sliding down.
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
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
