This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden trying to shake off concerns from Democratic big shots that he is moving too slowly in his reelection bid and failing to make the case that Bidenomics is anything other than a loser.

Former President Barack Obama reportedly is concerned about Biden’s complacency, especially as polls show him fading further to former President Donald Trump. And many Americans think Obama is Biden’s puppet master. Worse, his personal approval rating has fallen to below that of former President Jimmy Carter, who was crushed in his reelection by former President Ronald Reagan.

Trump, meanwhile, has his own problems, though his New Hampshire primary win on Tuesday boosted the likelihood that he will be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee.

On the positive side for the week, economic data showed an improving economy, a point made by Democratic pollster John Zogby, who graded the week a “B.”

On the negative side of the week was the polling data that showed many voters don’t believe the economy is improving, a point made by conservative grader Jed Babbin, who gave Biden a “D-minus” for the week.

Jed Babbin

Grade: D-

Vice President Kamala Harris said this week that President Joe Biden’s low poll numbers resulted from him not getting enough credit for its accomplishments. Au contraire. The Biden poll results are in direct correlation to the president’s accomplishments, such as they are.

Biden admitted this week that the southern border was out of control but denied any responsibility for the crisis. Seriously? After that, Harris said that the solution to the border (of which she is supposedly the czarina) was a path to citizenship for the illegals who are still coming across the border by the hundreds of thousands. Citizenship means voting rights. Joe and Kamala want to turn all those illegals into Democrat voters.

As a side note to that mess, the Pentagon revealed that it sold the metal (with which former President Donald Trump was trying to build the border wall) at a 97% discount. Yep, the Biden crew sold it off rather than build the wall at 3% of the price it was bought for.

If that weren’t enough, Biden is trying to push Israel into a peace deal with Arab States and Hamas that would leave Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and maintain its threat to Israeli security. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a Harvard study revealed that 50% of American renters can no longer afford their rent. Well, they can’t afford to buy groceries either so that probably balances out in the minds of the White House. 

The most inexplicable admission from Biden’s Maison Blanche was the fact that the U.S. had warned Iran of a coming ISIS terrorist attack. Whiskey tango foxtrot, over? Iran is our enemy. So is ISIS. Why not just let them kill each other? The ISIS attack succeeded in killing dozens of Iranians. They probably didn’t trust our warning. I wonder why.

John Zogby

Grade: B

Some very good numbers this week for President Joe Biden.

First, the smoking hot economy. Consumers and businesses continued to spend, crushing previous expectations of a 2024 recession. The GDP rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 3.3% from October through December. While that was slower than the 4.9% rate from July through September, growth in 2023 overall, from January through December of last year, registered at a healthy 2.5% rate.

But the fourth quarter’s rate beat the 1.5% that economists were expecting. The economy’s strength was driven by consumer spending, business investment, government outlays, exports and improvements in housing conditions.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the U.S. economy, grew at a healthy 2.8% rate in the fourth quarter, a slightly softer pace than the 3.1% rate in the prior three-month period. Meanwhile, business spending accelerated to a 1.9% rate, up from 1.4%. Inflation continues to slow. And the Dow Jones hit 38,000, helping those Americans with retirement accounts.

Biden was not on the ballot for the New Hampshire primary, but his write-in effort won a solid majority, thus eliminating any embarrassment like former President Lyndon B. Johnson experienced in 1968. In one poll, New Hampshire voters gave the edge to Biden over Trump — this in a state where Biden dissed tradition and voters’ sensibilities.

The president and vice president kicked off their re-election campaign with an abortion rally, an issue that has clearly been working for the Democrats since 2022. Polls show them still trailing Trump, even while the former president lost a major court battle and faces an increasingly bitter battle with his former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and GOP leadership in the Senate.

And Biden’s job approval remains at about 40%.

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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. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.