Which Presidential flub was Worst?

[Accountable]

You're so right. Here is the full list.



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1. Buchanan failed to head off secession and the Civil War.



2. Andrew Johnson's decision after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for blacks beyond abolishing slavery.



3. Lyndon Johnson allowed Vietnam War to intensify.



4. Woodrow Wilson refused to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after WWI



5. Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up.



6. James Madison's failure to keep the US out of the war of 1812 with Britain.



7. Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 prohibitting trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.



8. John F Kennedy's Bay of Pigs Invasion.



9. Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra Affair.



10. Bill Clinton's Lewinsky scandal.



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Of course, we've already shown that they're all wet.

SOURCE

[Adam Zapple]

Good thread, AC. I believe chonsigirl mentioned the Civil War was inevitable and I tend to agree. Buchanan didn't stop it and I guess that was a blunder so-to-speak but I'm not sure he could have stopped it; the seeds had been sown. He certainly lacked the political savvy to bring the two sides together and his reliance on the Supreme Court to give the final word on constitutional law came back to bite him with Dred Scott. However, I think Buchanan made a sincere effort to avoid the conflict and this list may be putting too much on one man's shoulder. It's possible that Franklin Pierce and the Kansas-Nebraska Act holds more responsibility for the war than Buchanan. Buchanan may not have stopped it, but Kansas-Nebraska precipitated the war.

I have other disagreements with this list, maybe because the word blunder illicits a different response in me. I think Jimmy Carter belongs up there; everything he did was a blunder. His policies not only led to the reemergence of Islamofascist regimes but his response to the embassy takeover gave prestige and respectability to the terrorists and we are still dealing with the ramifications today. Carter also decimated the CIA, again we are feeling the effects now.

LBJ's Great Society also deserves a spot on the list.

[LilacDragon]

Gosh, if Monica's little blue dress made this list, one would think that they could make a list to rival that at the end of Bush's current administration!

[Accountable]

Adam Zapple wrote: Good thread, AC. I believe chonsigirl mentioned the Civil War was inevitable and I tend to agree. Buchanan didn't stop it and I guess that was a blunder so-to-speak but I'm not sure he could have stopped it; the seeds had been sown. He certainly lacked the political savvy to bring the two sides together and his reliance on the Supreme Court to give the final word on constitutional law came back to bite him with Dred Scott. However, I think Buchanan made a sincere effort to avoid the conflict and this list may be putting too much on one man's shoulder. It's possible that Franklin Pierce and the Kansas-Nebraska Act holds more responsibility for the war than Buchanan. Buchanan may not have stopped it, but Kansas-Nebraska precipitated the war.



[...]
This would make a great thread. Unless I'm mistaken, until the Civil War the fed gov't was not much more than a UN. Then Lincoln stepped in and violated the Constitution several times, and the 14th(?) Amendment established the fed gov't superior to the states. I wonder if us pulling out of the UN would cause a similar reaction internationally. :yh_think