This week’s White House Report Card shows how an initial weak performance can overshadow everything that happens afterward.
First, there was the slow White House response to deploying help, food, and water to victims of Hurricane Helene. Homeland officials blamed a lack of funds, but media reports later said the department spent key dollars on illegal migrants the Biden-Harris administration let into the country.
No effort by the administration’s friends in the liberal media could spin that into a positive for President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden and Harris did make visits to the area, but they couldn’t compete with the photos of devastation and death. And Biden made a bad situation worse when he falsely claimed that the victims were “very happy” with his government’s feeble response.
Second, there was the fumbling start by Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) in his debate with GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) that had CNN anchors afterward conceding Walz lost.
Lost in those clouds of controversy were a positive jobs report and the abrupt suspension of the East Coast port strike.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump visited the hurricane-ravaged area and appeared sincere when he said, “I’m worried about the people, not the vote.” And on Saturday, he was traveling to Butler, Pa., the site of the first assassination attempt, for a hero’s return.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin highlighted the failed hurricane response in dishing an “F.” Democratic pollster John Zogby graded the week a “C,” and noted the president’s ineffectiveness in curbing the growing Middle East crisis.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
There was almost constant bad news for the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris this week with Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) debate performance, FEMA’s failure to provide federal relief for the hardest-hit of the Hurricane Helene victims, the firefighters’ union deciding to not endorse, and her declaration that marijuana should be legalized. The only good news was that the longshoremen’ union decided to delay their strike until after the election.
Even the liberal media (pardon the redundancy) had to admit that Walz lost the debate with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). In his failed performance, Walz proclaimed himself to be a “knucklehead” at one point and, at another, said he was “friends with school shooters.” In contrast, Vance was poised and coherent.
Walz: “I’ve become friends with school shooters.” pic.twitter.com/adQy8aORl5
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 2, 2024
The worst news of the week was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was nowhere to be seen in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Helene. Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas blamed a lack of funding after having spent over $1 billion on illegal immigrants.
Some private rescue efforts, of which there are many, were thwarted by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s ban on drone flights over the area. And Harris, making her second trip to the disaster zone Saturday, doesn’t want more pictures of the disaster-struck people being published.
Back at the White House, meanwhile, President Joe Biden is doing what former President Lyndon Johnson and his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara did during the Vietnam War — picking targets for the Israelis to hit back in response to the massive Iranian missile attack Tuesday night.
John Zogby
Grade: C
President Joe Biden’s grade is buoyed by unequivocally good economic news this week.
The national unemployment rate fell back down to 4.1% on the strength of 254,000 new jobs in September and a substantial upgrade in new jobs created in July and August. Wages continued to outpace the rate of inflation.
Biden’s job performance averages a little over 43% in polls just this week and his designated successor, Vice President Kamala Harris continues to lead in many national polls. The news is not so good in the battleground where former President Donald Trump has gained some ground in recent days. These states remain very close so I hesitate to call either candidate ‘leading.’
The news for the president, however, turns worse as the U.S. sits by passively and allows (‘enables’) Israel to expand to heavier bombing and now a ground war in Lebanon. That will not end well, and the U.S.-Israeli plan for nation-building after this war will most likely go the way of foolish efforts for the past 100 years.
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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 latest book, Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should, was just released. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.