Posted on 02/18/2006 12:20:02 PM PST by ncountylee
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - 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.
That was only a pleasant aftereffect of saving the Union. The latter is the reason he is one of the greatest statesmen in history.
The only elected President to ever be impeached ranks what?
The Great Depression was far from a typical "downturn" as a beheading from a shaving nick. He took power over two years after the collapse and began to apply standard financial principles like balance the budget through tax increases. He was not that radical initially.
That #9 is ridiculous. If I recall, we secretly sold defective military parts to Iran in order to fund the contras who were trying to free El Salvador from communist tyranny.... oh - - THAT's why these liberal "presidential historians" call it a blunder.
Nevermind.
Where did you see that Ike had advised JFK on the Bay of Pigs?
Ooops. Make that Nicaragua.
George Washington - - THE greatest President, hands down, in my humble opinion.
Where is Carter???
Who do you think sponsored this conference?
Gerald Ford for nominating Stevens to the High Court.
Bingo. The trend is clear as a bell.
Left wins: good show
America wins: poor leadership!
Uh, yes. The "wag the dog" happened over a two month period of late 1964 just prior to the election. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was in early August. Johnson and McNamara got their resolution out of congress within a week or so. The Warren Commission Report, which LBJ was micro managing through J. Edgar and others, was released in late September. The 1968 election had nothing to do with the escalation of the war.
Except for true believers, there never was any controversy about the case, and we don't need the "supporting" testimony of KGB thugs. For anyone brain-dead enough to believe in Hiss' innocence, the declassification of the Venona Intercepts, or the Yale Project that examined the Soviet Archives should have been enough. That they weren't is prima facie evidence of the Left's occupying an alternate--and false--reality.
This is why conservatives must never assume we've "won." The Left understands that each new generation represents an opportunity to take the perception--and therefore ownership--of history away. They've already succeeded in portraying the post World War II history of America as some kind of Medieval period in which innocents were persecuted into silence or suicide by the unjustified attacks of crazed Red Hunters. The truth is somewhat otherwise. Chambers, Bentley, and others who identified people who were spies and traitors to their own country were the ones who were ridiculed and attacked, always by the media, often by their own government--and whom history has vindicated.
1. All of Clinton's scandals
2. FDR for the New Deal and court packing scheme
3. Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus
4. Herbert Hoover for signing the Smoot-Hawley tariff and letting the federal reserve attempt to manage the Great Depression
5. Jimmy Carter handling the Iran hostages
6. Carter giving away the panama canal
7. John Quincy Adams for signing the tariff of abominations
8. William Howard Taft for permitting the 16th amendment to be adopted, and Woodrow Wilson for implementing it.
9. LBJ for the Great Society
10. Ulysses Grant for being oblivious of Credit Mobilier and all the corruption around him
George Washington was a Titan. A World Historic Individual for sure. Lincoln's task was far more tragic however and required talents of an equal nature. While the Revolutionary War was a civil war of sorts it seems not to be the same diminsion as the American civil war.
I sent a private reply containing the whole article, because I am not sure if we're allowed to post stuff from Townhall.com, but Mark Alexander wrote about this very issue this week in an article called "The Lincoln Legacy Revisited".
I urge everyone who believes what they were taught in school about Lincoln to read this article.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you will never make me believe that Abraham Lincoln is our #2 President of all time. He and FDR are two of the reasons why our Federal government today is bloated, useless and tyrannical.
A weak central government was the dream of those who wrote our Constitution. Their dream has been bastardized into what we have today; thanks, in large part, to Mr. Abraham Lincoln.
Amen to that!
Hehehe. Thanks.
Hehehe. Thanks. Right back at ya, as soon as I can find a worthy "E"
A MUCH better list than the one in the article. Are you an "expert" or a "scholar"?
The only changes I would make would be to move the Clinton scandals to #9 and LBJ to #3, with your #2 and #3 moving up tp #1 and #2, respectively.
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