Biden Report Card: ‘Creepy Joe’ is just plain ‘weird’

This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden ending a week that both of our graders called mixed at best.

It was highlighted by an uninspiring border trip by his vice president, a potential infrastructure deal, and what appears to be the end of voting reform, a project he had also assigned to Kamala Harris.

Conservative analyst Jed Babbin put a focus on the president’s “creepy” whispering press conference and “woke” Pentagon brass in grading a D-. Democratic pollster John Zogby, grading a B-, asked without answering, “Is he a transitional or transformational president?”

Jed Babbin
Grade: D-

It was a strange week, bordering on the weird for Biden and his team with the on-again, off-again deal on infrastructure, his Thursday “Creepy Joe” news conference, and his Pentagon leadership continuing to compete for the “most woke” among the top generals and admirals. And then, there’s the disrespect he’s receiving from Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

The most important lesson of the week will be lost on congressional Republicans who thought they had negotiated an infrastructure deal worth more than $1 trillion with Biden. The lesson is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can veto any deal Biden agrees to. The Republicans, always willing to lead with their chins, thought they had a deal with Biden until he said (obviously on Pelosi’s orders) that he wouldn’t sign any infrastructure bill unless a separate bill was passed at the same time giving more funding for “human infrastructure,” global warming baloney, and more. The GOP won’t learn the lesson. They’ll keep dealing with the monkey rather than the organ grinder.

Biden’s big announcement of his anti-crime policy flopped so badly that it didn’t make news for more than an hour. Biden promised to drive gun dealers who violate rules out of business, but he didn’t say much of anything else. There was no mention of cracking down on the year of riots and gun violence in big cities, though there was a passing mention of hiring more police.

Biden’s Thursday news conference, in which he leaned over the podium and answered reporters’ questions in whispers, was enough to get “Creepy Joe” to trend on Twitter. It was just plain weird.

Biden’s woke generals and admirals continue to boast their wokeness rather than their ability to command, which is very much in doubt. Resignations among the military haven’t yet hit their peak of the Clinton years, but soon, they will probably exceed it. Meanwhile, the further results of Biden’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and NATO are entirely evident. Iran and North Korea have both rejected overtures of negotiations, and the Russians had a fleet exercise 35 miles off Hawaii, which they bragged was to practice sinking aircraft carriers. Joe just don’t get no respect.

Meanwhile, Harris finally visited the border: She visited El Paso, Texas — which, yes, is on the border but is also hundreds of miles away from the places she could have seen the real crisis firsthand. Nothing to see here, people. Just move along.

John Zogby
Grade: B-

A mixed week for Biden.

There were three big losses — failure to pass the voting rights bill, a public announcement from the newly elected president of Iran that he would not meet with Biden nor slow down the country's nuclear development, and the spread of the delta strain of the COVID-19 virus.

But there was one very big victory: the 7-2 Supreme Court decision refusing to hear a state-driven challenge to Obamacare. And two potential breakthroughs with a possible compromise on about half of the president's infrastructure initiative and very possibly police reform.

The president and his party's leaders did demand that the other half of the infrastructure proposal be accomplished through reconciliation by a simple majority. As of today, we cannot be sure if the original compromise will pass. But it did fulfill a campaign promise to at least try to achieve compromise with the other side. Also, Biden can move on expanding the Affordable Care Act via reconciliation. Is he a transitional or transformational president? We will have to wait and see. The obstacles are great, but this week, we caught a glimpse of some opportunities.

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 Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter @ZogbyStrategies

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Tags: Washington Secrets, Biden Administration, Border Crisis, Joe Biden, John Zogby

Original Author: Paul Bedard

Original Location: Biden Report Card: ‘Creepy Joe’ is just plain ‘weird’