President Obama’s reaction to the Orlando, Fla., mass shooting by terror sympathizer Omar Mateen deeply divided our White House graders this week.
John Zogby
The president made a moving visit and tribute to the victims of the Orlando shooting this week. Attempts by Sen. John McCain and GOP nominee Donald Trump tried to link Mr. Obama’s policies in Iraq to the criminally-insane shooter fell flat. The Arizona Republican at least backtracked, a word and concept that is not part of the Trump repertoire.
Mr. Obama’s polling average is now 50 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval, numbers that are higher than most presidents at this stage in their final term. Polls taken just in the past week place him over 50 percent, with Gallup even hitting 54 percent.
It was a bad week for America but the president is not being blamed by anyone other than those who simply hate his guts anyway.
Grade B+
Jed Babbin
President Obama spent the week taking political correctness and blindness to America’s national security to new heights. Speaking Sunday about the Orlando massacre by Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen, Obama blamed guns, blamed Congress and blamed everything but Islamism and its ideology – the obvious cause of the mass murder — for the horrible act . His statement that we need to demonstrate that we are not defined by hate — we, not the Islamic terrorists that murder us — was a despicable slander against America, its culture and its values.
Later in the week, Obama’s enraged response to Donald Trump’s calling him out for political correctness revealed two basic truths. Not only is Obama like a goldfish swimming in a bowl of political correctness, his feckless anti-terrorist strategies are a product of his PC mindset. And they have failed catastrophically.
Grade F
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]
