Pollster John Zogby reports in our White House report card that President Obama had a week of advances and putdowns, highlighted by a federal court's slap of his National Security Agency spying scandal offset by his decision to snub Russian President Vladimir Putin's Olympics.
"Not the best and not the worst week for the president. He was smacked down by high profile/high tech executives on NSA eavesdropping at a White House meeting and his efforts to elicit their support for Obamacare fell flat. And the program was also deemed 'probably unconstitutional' by a federal circuit judge.
“But registrations for health insurance exchanges under Obamacare continue and are picking up some steam. Applications for jobless benefits are down and the Federal Reserve has seen enough improvement in the economy to slow down quantitative easing for a few months. Economists are now projecting a decline in the unemployment rate to 6 percent to 6.2 percent over just the next few months.
“And Obama seized the opportunity to assert American values of equality and non-discrimination to Vladimir Putin: The U.S. will send a delegation to the Winter Olympics that will be led by prominent gay athletes and will not include the president.
“His polling numbers, while stuck in the low forties, are not sliding."
Grade — C