Posted on 02/18/2006 12:20:02 PM PST by ncountylee
Nixon imposing price controls was worse than the Watergate coverup.
And where's Jimmy Carter? Being a wimp with Iran, giving away the Panama Canal, 14% interest rates, 20% mortgages, skyrocketing gasoline prices, and general "malaise" - does that not count for something????
... Stand corrected....still a Democrat Fiasco... Wasn't Yalta the League of Nations conference?
Where does appointing Souter fall in the lisat?
Where is Carter? (I second that!)
Bush *saying* no new taxes when he knew he couldn't keep that promise.
Or Lincoln?
The United Nations was already in the works well before Yalta.
Actually replace Clitnton-Moanica with Eisenhower-Earl Warren to the Supreme Court.
I thought that Iran-Contra was a master stroke.Consider this;We sell arms to the Iranians who get themselves killed in great numbers.The money from these sales finances weapons for anti-communist forces who then kill commies in great numbers.This is a Win-Win situation for us,and darn good stewardship of our funds.
There are those who'd put Lincoln #1 for "stripping citizens of a foreign country of their property rights."
I'm not one of them tho!
They forgot about Herby Hoover signing protectionist legislation that greatly contributed to the severity and length of the Great Depression. In fact Herby and Franklin Roosevelt should get a joint award for making the depression worst through their meddling.
Jimmy Carter could have, should have, picked up all ten top spots on his lonesome.
It wasn't the fact that Kennedy allowed the Bay of Pigs. It was that he encouraged it and promised help and didn't come through.
#9 is one of those non-event events, a curiosity only.
I was looking at list, and thinking about the rating -
Many posters bring up FDR, Potsdam, etc -
Note that if you ask "What were worst US Presidential actions for leftists/communists" you get a very differnet look -
For instance - Potsdam was good for commies.
Starting/(escalating) Vietnam war? Commies end up winning and US embarrassed - thus not bad.
Reagan and Contras - bad for commies - on list
Clinton and Iran - good for anti-americans - not on list.
Nixon's non-impeachment rated higher than Clintoon's actual impeachment, and subsequent loss of respect for law in US? Just typical leftist spin.
I'm no historian - I just noted a bit of a trend. The freepers treated the question as if "bad" meant bad for the US/ I'm not sure the hoistorians did.
Buchanan's inaction and Johnson's mess in Vietnam really did do the nation lasting harm. Nixon's Watergate cover-up had consequences that took us a decade or so to get over. You could add Peirce's incompetence in letting Kansas-Nebraska go through.
Iran-Contra and Clinton-Lewinsky look like blips in comparison. Jefferson's Embargo and Kennedy's Bay of Pigs were horrible blunders, but may not have done the country or the world lasting harm. Or am I missing something?
Madison's decision to attack Canada was likewise one of the stupidest things any US president has countenanced, but the country doesn't seem to have had much trouble putting it behind us. Calling our second war with Britain a draw did a lot for our national pride, even if it did mean getting our capital burned. Go figure.
The two blunders that are most questionable are Andrew Johnson's and Woodrow Wilson. Would any course of action have worked during Reconstruction? Johnson may have taken the morally objectionable course, but would a different approach really have brought about lasting and beneficial changes?
As for Wilson, did he err more in not compromising to put the Versailles treaty through or in getting into the First World War to begin with? And yes, there were other decisions -- FDR's approach to the Depression, and his infatuation with Stalin, Eisenhower's support for coups in Iran and Guatemala -- that might also qualify as important presidential blunders.
Baloney, from the very beginning. As if the Civil War could've been avoided. It was brewing since the Founding of the nation itself.
Then again, Bush I encouraged Shia uprisings and didn't come through either. Should have whacked Saddam while we were there.
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