This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden out of touch and muffing his job. Worse, his polls show that the public and his electoral base know it.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin came in with an “F” for the week and cited the famous line attributed to Casey Stengel about his 1962 New York Mets team: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded a “C” and said Biden needs a victory and soon.
Jed Babbin
Grade F
After an unsuccessful search for events that would raise Biden’s grade above an “F” this week, this doleful accounting lists the week’s significant government actions demonstrating its powerlessness to deal with or even recognize reality.
Having left behind hundreds of American civilians and Afghan allies, as clear of an abandonment of government’s duty as has ever occurred, the Biden administration hasn’t managed to get but a few out of the hands of the Taliban, the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and the rest of the terrorists who now run Afghanistan. A few flew out on a Qatari airliner, but hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies remain. But Biden seems not to care.
After many statements from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that there would be no vaccine mandate, Biden issued a highly politicized vaccine mandate Thursday. People who work for companies with more than 100 employees will have to be vaccinated. That part of the mandate creates a legal and logistical nightmare. All federal employees will have to be vaccinated or lose their jobs. Well, not all. Postal Service employees, all 600,000 of them, are exempt. Why, you ask? Because the USPS employees’ union donated heavily to Biden’s presidential campaign.
The Wuhan virus continues to ravage the country. To give it some perspective, the Kung Flu has killed more than 200 times the number who died on 9/11. And recently disclosed documents seem to prove that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress when he said the United States hadn’t funded “gain of function” research at the Wuhan lab. Fauci remains Biden’s favorite doc.
Meanwhile, 200,000+ illegal immigrants are coming across our southern border each month, inflation is as high as it’s been in 30 years, and Pelosi is trying to push another $3.5 trillion in spending through Congress. The resulting #Bidenflation will go much higher.
Our cartoonish government is making some incredibly dumb statements. The White House said the Taliban were “businesslike and professional” in negotiations to get more Americans out. This, as Americans sat for hours (days?) in aircraft on the runways in Mazar-e-Sharif while the State Department apparently delayed their departure. The White House’s excuse for that, their inability to vet the Afghans who were also on the flight, seems plausible. Why wouldn’t the Taliban allow a few Americans on the aircraft and then fill it up with the aforementioned Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, and other jihadis?
The dumbest statements came, of course, from the Pentagon and the State Department. Secretary of State Antony Blinken chastised the Taliban’s new government (which, to no one’s surprise except Blinken’s, has no women in it) for not being sufficiently “inclusive.” Blinken also accepted the Taliban’s promise to enable those who want to leave Afghanistan to do so safely. And, to top that off, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also criticized the Taliban government for not being inclusive and that he doesn’t “look favorably” on the fact that many of them are wanted terrorists, at least four of whom were released from Guantanamo Bay by former President Barack Obama. Is Austin so delusional that he believes the Taliban give a damn about what he says?
With respect to Biden’s and his advisers’ performance in running the government, I’m reminded of what legendary team manager Casey Stengel asked the 1962 New York Mets: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
John Zogby
Grade C-
Twenty years to the day of the terrible attacks on U.S. soil, the nation is more divided than ever.
The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is also the anniversary of the iconic photo of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt locked arm-in-arm singing “God Bless America.” Look at all we have lost since that day.
Biden has a lot on his plate, and his honeymoon is over. His approval numbers are upside down. The congressional generic is evenly split. The country is headed in the wrong direction. He is faced with the exact same crises as when he entered with no solution in sight.
The GOP is emboldened by his poor ratings to block his agenda on infrastructure, climate, criminal justice, and voting rights. The Supreme Court has allowed a Texas law effectively banning abortions to stay. And many trying to flee the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan are blocked at the airport. Much of the nation is literally drowning, proving that there is a big difference between an “act of God” and a “Deus ex machina.”
Biden continues to be a mature and able leader, but this week is another bad one. He needs a victory, and one did not come this week.
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 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
