Stupid CNN Poll

[Staph]

What do you think was the worst presidential blunder?
Buchanan / Civil War
Clinton / Lewinsky
Nixon / Watergate

Hello! What about Bush/Iraq War? Bush/Bin Ladin? Bush/Budget deficit?

The poll is at http://www.cnn.com/ and the current results are
Buchanan / Civil War 27% 567 votes
Clinton / Lewinsky 25% 538 votes
Nixon / Watergate 48% 1028 votes

[bigwillq]

1. Hello. Welcome to DU!

I voted Nixon/Watergate but the results were the same as what you have posted. :shrug:


:hi:

[Higans]

3. Ditto

Such a sham

[dufrenne]

2. I think the

standard is finished terms (one or two). I.e. scientifically speaking, if it is theoretically possible, however unlikely, for Bush to turn things around (deficit, war etc), then his place would have to be reconsidered. I imagine that's the thinking. I have no idea though.

[SammyBlue]

4. Where's Reagan/Declared Soviet Union illegal?

Hoover/ignoring Depression?

Taft/Teapot Dome?

Grant/Alcoholism?

Lincoln/Civil War (meaning just let those Neanderthals in the South go)?

CNN's partisanship isn't even secret anymore!!!

[Digit]

5. They wussed out

Bigtime

[MissMarple]

6. Maybe Nixon is code for Bush.

;)

[Staph]

7. I totally missed the study . . .

By a group of presidential historians, organized by the University of Louisville, referenced in this story http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/18/president.mistakes.ap/index.html .

Their top ten are rather interesting:

1. Buchanan / Civil War
2. A. Johnson / early end to Reconstruction
3. L. Johnson / Intensification of Vietnam War
4. Wilson / Refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles
5. Nixon / Watergate cover-up
6. Madison / failure to keep US out of the War of 1812
7. Jefferson / Embargo Act of 1807
8. Kennedy / Bay of Pigs Invasion
9. Reagan / Iran-Contra Affair
10. Clinton / Lewinsky scandal

[Rocknrule]

8. So Clenisgate was a bigger blunder than the Civil War?

:wtf:

[TimeToGo]

9. Watergate

So Watergate and all the other abuses of power weren't blunders -- just the cover-up? Interesting.

FYI -- numbers now:

Buchanan / Civil War 26% 2813 votes
Clinton / Lewinsky 25% 2641 votes
Nixon / Watergate 49% 5184 votes

[depakid]

10. "stupid" "CNN" "poll" is redundant

So don't even bother with them.

[warrior1]

11. that is a stupid poll

[Virginia Dare]

12. What, do they have their high school interns doing the polls

on weekends? I mean WTF??? But I'll go with "Buchanan/Civil War", if we're blaming that little debacle all on Buchanan. Purely on body count. However "Bush/911/Afghanistan/Iraq/what next?" is a close second.

[chaumont58]

13. CNN has lost its god damn mind!!!!!

A fuckin' blowjob is the same as a CIVIL WAR? Or Nixon? Sweet god damn jesus! They have lost what little is left of their tiny little brains.

[biscotti]

14. done

[Capn Sunshine]

15. Civil War:WaterGate:

Lewinsky????????????????? how do you put a conflict that killed 15% of our citizens and a Constitutional Crisis on a par with illicit sex?

Leaving aside the Bush administration....

[BenDavid]

16. Here is the story

and the poll from scholars that rated the presidents and their blunders. Wrote CNN to vote my disaproval as to them using Clinton in their Quick Vote, and once you read this article you will see too, as why I and many others should write this lame ass media channel....

Scholars Rate Worst Presidential Errors
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer
Sat Feb 18, 2:06 PM ET

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - 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.

[threadkillaz]

17. Hypocrites

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/21/cp.01.html


"In 2005, as the Iraq War entered its third year, the top U.S. weapons hunter ended his search. Case closed. No weapons of mass destruction have been found."