This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden working overtime to please his liberal base and angering the rest of the country with his knee-jerk political moves.
Portrayed as a “devout Catholic,” the president dismayed millions of Christians with a statement declaring Easter Sunday also as a “Transgender Day of Visibility.” More than 639 words, he embraced the day in a proclamation that he easily could have shelved since it would anger those more focused on Christ’s resurrection. His Easter statement took up just 94 words.
He and his team also stepped up criticism of Israel over its defensive actions following the October Hamas attacks on innocent civilians. Israel gave the administration ammo by striking a convoy of aid workers from Chef José Andrés World Central Kitchen. Israel accepted blame for the deaths after the administration threatened to stop backing it, likely the biggest break ever between the allies.
In grading the week an “F,” conservative analyst Jed Babbin raised several issues including Biden’s decision to skip refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because oil prices are too high, a situation he blamed the president for.
In grading the week a “C,” Democratic pollster John Zogby highlighted positive job reports and some polls that show the president in a dead heat with challenger and former President Donald Trump despite Biden’s problems.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
The entire week could be graded on one of President Joe Biden’s actions. His declaration that Easter Sunday would be “Transgender Visibility Day” offended every Christian in the nation. Biden later denied having done so. He may not have realized what was going on given his ever-declining mental state.
It would be unfair to grade Biden’s week without mentioning some of the other disasters he and his crew were foisting on the American people and their allies. A lot had to do with Biden’s “green” agenda.
Starting with his decision to not refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve thanks to the higher oil prices he has managed to cause. The president decided that oil prices were too high to refill the SPR, unlike the times when he drained the SPR to artificially lower gasoline prices at the pump for political purposes. There was no emergency when he did that so now we have no reserve if a real emergency arises.
And then there were the Biden electric truck rules which attempted to convert long-haul trucks to electric power. That, of course, further strains our already inadequate electric grid, which can’t even power air conditioners in the summer without “brownouts” of some homes, factories and offices. The truck rule will also lower the amount of cargo each truck can haul (because of the weight of the batteries and the space they take up), raising the prices of everything that’s hauled by truck. Which is just about everything.
Biden’s foreign policy hasn’t improved. He is now threatening Israel with an end to U.S. aid unless Israel begins a one-sided ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu empowers his negotiators to get a deal to release the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7. He ignored the fact that Netanyahu has said — at least a dozen times — that Hamas can have an extended ceasefire as soon as it releases the hostages. Biden — or whoever is making his decisions for him — hates Israel.
And Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised that Ukraine will be a member of NATO soon. We should not go to war with Russia over Ukraine, yet Blinken’s statement will enrage Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will go to war with us over Ukraine.
And on a lighter note, Biden promised to take the Houthis off the terrorist list if they would just stop bombing ships in the Red Sea. YGBSM.
John Zogby
Grade: C
The numbers were good for President Joe Biden this week.
A total of 303,000 new jobs were created last month and the unemployment rate dropped a point, to 3.8%. Both of these exceeded expectations, as did a rise in wages averaging 4.1% over the past 12 months. That outpaced the rate of inflation and investors who are buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s plan to lower interest rates because of confidence in the economy.
The Israel Defense Forces killed seven aid workers for Chef José Andrés iconic World Central Kitchen, which angered the world and U.S. public opinion and amounted to a wet noodle rebuke from the president.
The race between Biden and former President Donald Trump remained in a dead heat, with the Democrat actually ahead in a few polls. But the battleground states need some shoring up by him. Meanwhile, the subject of his age has taken a back seat.
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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 X @jedbabbin.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Their firm polls for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.