This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden muttering through another week that didn’t help his party’s chances in the 2022 congressional midterm elections just about five weeks away.
The highlights of the week were continued increasing inflation, a surprise decision to rip 770,000 students out of the college loan forgiveness program, Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian territories, and Biden’s shocking decision to call out for the late Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican congresswoman who died in a car crash in August, during a speech.
SOARING INTEREST RATES MEAN DEBT RECKONING COULD COME YEARS SOONER THAN THOUGHT
Followed by a bumbling explanation by the White House press secretary on why the president forgot about Walorski’s death, the incident fueled concerns about Biden’s mental state.
“Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie?”@JoeBiden appears to ask if dead congresswoman is at White House speech. https://t.co/cl76kJk4bD pic.twitter.com/4ilM012Ml4
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 28, 2022
Both of our graders, conservative analyst Jed Babbin and Democratic pollster John Zogby, noted the incident. Babbin called it “pathetic,” but Zogby was more forgiving.
Jed Babbin
Grade D-
Biden and his administration displayed their characteristic bumbling and fumbling this week, but for the past seven days, it wasn’t the least bit funny.
To begin with, the bear Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 30,000, losing all the gains it had made since Biden became president. That was a direct result of the inflation and higher interest rates brought about by Biden’s reckless and wasteful spending.
Inflation continues to rage, and gasoline prices are rising again. That didn’t prevent Biden from claiming on Tuesday that gas prices in some states were below $3 per gallon. This, of course, was entirely false: The American Automobile Association said that no state had an average gas price below $3.
One of the reasons that gasoline has been cheap for the past few weeks is that Biden has been draining our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to produce oil that could and should have been produced by all the off-and-onshore drilling and fracking Biden is blocking. Biden is selling oil from the SPR at 6 million or 7 million barrels per week, effectively using the Strategic Reserve as a credit card for the Democrats’ 2022 campaigns. The SPR reportedly now holds less than it has held in 38 years.
The SPR oil supply was intended to, and should, be used only for real emergencies such as an anti-U.S. oil embargo. Now that Biden has made us again dependent on foreign oil, his use of it is another abuse of power. And so is his $400 billion-plus buyout of student loans. That loan buyout, as presented in a new lawsuit to block it by several states, is beyond Biden’s legal and regulatory powers.
What was more pathetic? Biden’s obvious mental decay on display in a Wednesday speech and his inept press secretary’s explanation of it. Biden, speaking at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, praised several members of Congress and singled out the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN), asking, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I think she wasn’t going to be here — to help make this a reality.” She died in a car crash in August.
Biden’s press secretary later tried to explain away the huge flub by saying Walorski was at the “top” of Biden’s mind. Glad to know something’s there.
Meanwhile, mortgage interest rates went above 7%.
On a funnier but more serious note, Vice President Kamala Harris praised our alliance with “North” Korea during a visit to the DMZ. I sometimes try to write parody, but nothing I make up can compete with her.
John Zogby
Grade C+
Yes, we have all either had or watched someone have one of those moments like Biden did in calling out for Walorski during a speech this week.
Over 50 years ago, I was with a girlfriend at an art show, and one of my high school students came up to say hello. The student was wearing a sundress, and something unflattering was on her neck. My girlfriend said, ‘Hold on a second,’ and flicked what she thought was a fly on the student. Well, it was a mole, sad to say. And I never talked to that student again. But I remember like it was yesterday.
We never forget those moments, but I didn’t break up with my girlfriend over it.
So the public face of the president this past week featured him giving a shoutout to a congresswoman who had been tragically killed in a car crash a few months ago. It was embarrassing and even icky, but not a game changer.
Biden also backtracked on his student loan forgiveness plan, but I see a president in command of facts and strategy — things I could not say about Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.
This president shuffles, slurs his words at times, and is slower than he was before. Those who have known Biden for decades will tell you he needed to slow it down from 78 rpm to 33 1/3 rpm.
His approval polling numbers are averaging 44% in the past week. So he wins for the week.
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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 Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and managing partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies
