AP Lists Top 10 Presidential Blunders... Where's Bush???????

[nofoil]

Ok, am I in an alternate universe or what. AP lists top 10 presidential blunders, and NOTHING on Bush? Come on folks! Just who are these U of Louisville "researchers" AP is talking about and what idiots did they talk to? This is the top AOL news story right now, with a poll and all. Must now work on calming down...


Scholars Rate Worst Presidential Blunders
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Feb. 18) - From engaging in sexual relations with an intern to letting the Vietnam War escalate, U.S. presidents have been blamed for some egregious errors

So who had the worst blunder? President James Buchanan, for failing to avert the Civil War, according to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center.

The survey's top 10 presidential blunders were announced Saturday during a President's Day weekend conference called "Presidential Moments."

"We can probably learn just as much - or maybe even more - by looking at the mistakes rather than looking at why they were great," said political scientist and McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg.

Scholars who participated said Buchanan didn't do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.

The second worst mistake, the survey found, was Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites and oppose improvements in justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.

"We continue to pay" for Johnson's errors, wrote Michael Les Benedict, an Ohio State University history professor emeritus.

Lyndon Johnson earned the No. 3 spot by allowing the Vietnam War to intensify, Gregg said.

Where does Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal rank? Many scholars said it belonged at No. 10, saying that it probably affected Clinton's presidency more than it did American history and the public.

The rest of the top 10 blunders:

4: Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

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

6: James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain.

7: Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.

8: John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

9: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicaragua.


02/18/06 14:06 EST



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[I Have A Dream]

1. Yeah, alternate universe is what I've been thinking lately also.

:(

[Tab]

2. Perhaps

they were simply referring to elected Presidents.

[nofoil]

4. LOL

Good one!

[saltpoint]

6. : )

:thumbsup:

[dufrenne]

3. like I posted before

probably only presidents who are out of office on the farout unlikely chance that bush could turn around his blunders by the time he leaves. I imagine the people who put this together used that standard. I.e. more scientifc...bla blah

[wisteria]

5. I think you have to be a former President to qualify. Although they

could still be adding up all of Bush major mistakes.

[nofoil]

8. If only

he already qualified as a former president. Sigh...

[melody]

7. They wanted to vary the field

Didn't want one guy rackin' up the top 10.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. 9/11? Iraq? Hello? nt.

[UrbScotty]

12. Katrina too (nt)

[nofoil]

17. $2 billion/day owed to Chinese and Japanese

Not a mistake? How about when the Chinese call in the debts? They'll own us.

[sandnsea]

10. Losing the largest US port

No, not on the list. Larger debt than all other Presidents combined. Nope don't see that. Completely fabricate intelligence in order to START a war, nope, nope, not there either.

I sincerely hope these historians are talking about ex-Presidents. Based on this list, Bush could easily take all ten spots.

[UrbScotty]

11. How the F**K is Wilson's worse than Nixon's?? (nt)

[TabulaRasa]

16. I think they're suggesting (plausibly)

that it caused the rise of the Third Reich. Sorry, I do agree that should go higher than Watergate.

[bemildred]

13. "We continue to pay" for Johnson's errors ...

Indeed, and it's amazing how infrequently that is pointed out. And we have a collection of the same nutballs that gave us VietNam running things now, and we are going to be paying for them just about forever, assuming the nation manages to hold together at all.

[WhiteTara]

14. those were blunders ...this is a crime

Okay, Reagan was a criminal too. Lucien Goldberg was a great funder of that crime that spawned the death squads that Negroponte has instituted in Iraq.

[TabulaRasa]

15. Number One has got to be:

Bush--Being born.

[Demeter]

18. Talk About Skewed Priorities!

What about Herbert Hoover crashing the economy? Or Andrew Jackson letting the ignorant destroy the White House, the banking system, and the social contract? Clinton doesn't rate in the top 20.

[nofoil]

20. Teapot Dome Anyone? The Depression...

[yurbud]

19. it's like trying to get an elephant and an aphid in the same picture

they aren't the same scale.

None of these hold a candle to Bush.

He beats them all in corruption, domestic economy damage, our reputation in the world, damage to democracy itself, lying to the public and Congress, secrecy, and on and on. Others have committed similar sins, but none went as far or in so many directions.

Most at worst were incompetent or corrupt. Bush is actively dangerous.

[nofoil]

21. Amen, Bud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1