Our presidential report card graders Jed Babbin and John Zogby were split this week over the meaning of President Obama’s upcoming trip to communist Cuba and DOA nomination of federal appeals judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
John Zogby
The president’s approval numbers average 48 percent, the highest of his second term. Several individual pools rate him at 50 percent or above.
He is forging ahead with his nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court as polls show voters support his constitutional right to do so in the wake of Republican Senate opposition.
Mr. Obama also continues plans to visit Cuba, another opportunity to look presidential — something that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton are doing very well. A very good week.
Grade A
Jed Babbin
President Obama’s week began on an amusing note. The “Brexit” campaign — in which many Brits seek to take Britain out of the European Union because the EU infringes on the empire’s sovereignty — is under way and Obama has been arguing that Britain should stay in the EU. (He plans a visit to England next month to campaign against Brexit.) London Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the world’s most interesting politicians, told Obama to butt out, accusing him of “exorbitant hypocrisy.”
Seeking to outmaneuver Senate Republicans, Obama nominated D.C. Circuit of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Garland, though not an in-your-face liberal like Elena Kagan, is nevertheless a liberal’s liberal and would clearly change the balance of the court from relatively conservative to definably liberal.
Obama will be in Cuba next week. Cuba remains an avowed enemy of the U.S. and harbors at least four American terrorists without objection by Obama. London’s Boris Johnson was right, but applied his deduction too narrowly.
Grade F
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]
