This week’s White House Report Card comes as President Joe Biden and his national security team are mulling more attacks on terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria in a widening retaliation on an Iran-backed group the president feels is responsible for the deaths of three United States soldiers last week.
Biden, who is at his Delaware home and later flying to headline a Los Angeles political event Saturday with black entertainment leaders in hopes of jazzing his lagging support among minority voters, said more attacks are coming.
Our Democratic report card grader, pollster John Zogby, said that there are concerns in the country about escalating U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts.
“As of this writing, the U.S. has launched 125 bombing strikes on 85 targets of Iran-backed militant bases in Iraq and Syria — and the White House promises that this is ‘just the beginning,’” he said in his weekly review.
Zogby, however, has a warning from his polling that the nation is concerned about the country getting deeper in the turmoil throughout the Middle East, especially after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October.
“I am sure it feels good for now, but this looks like a major escalation and a widening of a regional war that the American people have said they don’t want,” he cautioned in his analysis that was accompanied by a weekly grade of “C plus.”
John Zogby
Grade: C+
Wow, 353,000! That is the number of new jobs created in January, almost double what economists were predicting. Moreover, wages grew by over half of a percent in the month, ending the year mark at 4.5%, well above the 3.2% rate of inflation.
Kudos came from across the spectrum, including none other than former President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow and CNBC’s Rick Santelli, the man who gave the name to the “Tea Party” movement. Sooner or later, one would think that voters are going to notice the economy is improving. Meanwhile, though few are linking this good news to Biden, folks continue to spend which gives the main boost to economic growth.
Of the 2024 general election polls conducted this week alone, Trump leads in three, Biden in two, and one is tied. While the job approval numbers are all over the place, they are still averaging 41%.
As of this writing, the U.S. has launched 125 bombing strikes on 85 targets of Iran-backed militant bases in Iraq and Syria — and the White House promises that this is ‘just the beginning.’ I am sure it feels good for now, but this looks like a major escalation and a widening of a regional war that the American people have said they don’t want.
He and his surrogates struck out in a planned Dearborn, Michigan, huddle as major Arab-American leaders refused even to meet because of Gaza.
Here in this country, Trump is watching as one federal election tampering case set to begin on March 4 has been postponed indefinitely while the Georgia election tampering and fraud case is being reduced to a soap opera travesty.
Remember, “It’s the economy, stupid?” Well, this year, it ain’t.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
I often wake up thinking that President Joe Biden has run out of things to foul up, but he and his administration continue to find things to break and make worse. This was another week that would have earned Biden a grade lower than “F” if there were one.
Three U.S. troops were killed by Iranian-backed militia in an attack on an outpost in Jordan. The U.S. finally launched attacks on terrorist sites late Friday. The Defense Department says it’s readying attacks on more Iranian proxies, but Biden is clearly not going to hit the Iranians directly. He bloody well should because their proxies are acting on their orders. How about sinking the two Iranian ships in the Red Sea, for starters? Biden is giving the Iranian proxy forces time to vacate their camps before we attack. Biden continues to prove that weakness is provocative.
Were that not enough — and it most assuredly is — Biden told one of the grieving families that he’d lost his son in Iraq. That’s not even his most-repeated lie, but it’s probably the most memorable.
It boggles the mind, but Biden is paying illegal immigrants the expenses of their trips to enter the USA. According to a Washington Examiner report, “Illegal immigrants hoping to cross the U.S.-Mexico border are receiving over $1 billion in money cards, envelopes of cash, and other benefits paid for by U.S. taxpayers as part of President Joe Biden’s pro-immigration.” When you subsidize something, you get more of it. Unbelievable as it may be. Biden is paying people to enter the U.S. illegally.
Meanwhile, Biden is still trying to force the Israelis into a bad deal for peace in Gaza. AND he’s thinking about formally recognizing a Palestinian “state.” Where is it? Who’s its president, Yayah Sinwar of Hamas or the superannuated Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority? Only Biden would want to recognize a country that doesn’t exist.
And there’s a lot of smaller stuff worth mentioning. Biden’s crew labeled Martha’s Vineyard — one of the ritziest and most expensive places in the country to live — as a low-income area in order to give it more money for charging stations for electric cars. And, of course, Biden’s folks announced that they were delaying approval for natural gas export projects to please the global warming grifters. In fact, U.S. natural gas is the cleanest-burning fuel you can get. Period.
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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. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
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.
