Our presidential report card graders Jed Babbin and John Zogby both noted the depressing decline in American wages, but came up with a different assessment.
John Zogby
The president is doing just fine. He is watching his opposition party fall apart and that has to give him some sustenance.
Several polls show him with over 50 percent approval and his average is now a 48 percent – 48 percent split.
Unemployment stayed at 4.9 percent as 242,000 new jobs were created in February and the previous month’s’ new jobs were upgraded. The number of Americans actively looking for work increased but wages actually declined.
A federal court allowed for emissions standards under the global warming pact to be continued in defiance of the Supreme Court. Mr. Obama continues to have his haters but he plows forward.
Grade B+
Jed Babbin
Barack who? That seemed to be the question in this week’s news. The president’s absence wasn’t even noticeable amongst the din of campaign noise.
The one good thing he did was for all the wrong reasons. Obama reneged on his January promise to not support the re-election of pro-gun Democrats. This week Obama endorsed former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s Senate candidacy, even though Strickland had opposed an assault weapons ban and background checks. Once again, Obama put party and power ahead of (misguided) principle.
The monthly jobs report showed 242,000 jobs added in January. The unemployment rate, at 4.9 percent, doesn’t include the 94 million Americans who dropped out of the labor force, who are able and want to work but have given up looking for a job. Unemployment, in depressed areas such as Detroit, is 11 percent or higher. The economy grew at the rate of 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, which stifles job creation. Low growth means wages remain behind the power curve.
Grade C-
John Zogby is the senior analyst for Zogby Analytics and author (with Joan Snyder Kuhl) of “The First Globals: Understanding, Managing, and Unleashing our Millennial Generation.” Follow him at @TheJohnZogby.
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him @jedbabbin.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
