"Scholars Rate Worst Presidential Errors"

[GreenPartyVoter]

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.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20060218/D8FRN0J83.html

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Why isn't 9/11 on this list?

Or the Katrina response?

[dchill]

10. Why?

Weren't those both "successes" for the War President? Wasn't "Mission Accomplished" in both instances?

[applegrove]

16. Because it is a historical piece, pretending to be news. Yup - the

freepers are that dumb.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. They Claim It's Too Recent

The explanation was that they did not include anything that isn't actually over yet. So, 9/11, Katrina, and Iraq weren't on the list because the outcomes are still unknown.

It's kind of weak, i think, but it was consistent. Although it's hard to understand how the Lewinsky thing isn't too recent, but 9/11 was. They only happened 4 years apart.
The Professor

[Virginia Dare]

2. I'll take Clinton's body count over Bush's anyday...eom

[wuushew]

3. Depends if you factor in the human toll of sanctions

which of course served no purpose against a non-existent WMD program.

[ET Awful]

4. I think any historian worth his degree would have rated Iran-Contra

higher than the 9 the article lists.

After all, the events of Iran-Contra are directly and indirectly linked to the events in Iraq today.

[enigma000]

6. How is it indirectly linked? n/t

[ET Awful]

11. Via Iran. Iran is not directly linked to the situation in Iraq today othe

than after the fact of the invasion as a major political influence in Iraqs new government.

[On the Road]

5. Can't Argue with Most of Those Choices

although "LETTING the Vietnam War escalate" sounds awfully awfully passive.

I don't know why the Iraq War isn't on the list -- maybe because it's still being played out. I expect it to show up on the list in the next few years.

[mainer]

12. "Letting something happen"

isn't the same thing as actively committing a blunder. (e.g., like committing our troops to a war based on false pretenses.) You're absolutely right.

[Chomskyite]

7. Omit

I pressed submit twice. Sorry.

[Chomskyite]

8. Notice it's from the McConnell Center

. . . which is named after one of the more evil members of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell.

"The McConnell Center was established in 1991 by Kentucky's senior U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and the University of Louisville. McConnell, a 1964 graduate of the University, founded the Center based on his belief that "Kentucky's future depends on inspiring talented, motivated leaders."

http://www.mcconnellcenter.org/about/

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Ah, I didn't take that into acct. Good point!

[smirkymonkey]

17. ... and therefore irrelevant.

The fact that Clinton/Lewinski is in the top 10 is completely laughable. It was a non-incident as far as any rational human being should be concerned.

[Time for change]

13. I don't see why our current pResident isn't on the list

Several times.

[smirkymonkey]

14. How can anyone take this list seriously when George W. Bush

is not 1 through 9, with Poppy as number 10 (greatest blunder: marrying the satanic Barbara Pierce and spawning generations of evil, stupid, greedy pigs.)

What a joke.

[txindy]

15. This is where CNN took their choices for the poll the other day.

But they only gave a choice of three:

a) the historians' #1 Buchanan - Civil War

b) the historians' #5 Nixon - Watergate

c) the historians' #10 Clinton - Monica

Although I'm sure that CNN had no ulterior motives with those choices. :eyes:

Nixon 'won' the CNN poll, much to CNN's chagrin, I suspect.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Reverse #1 and #2 and it's about right.

We're still paying for Johnson's cave in to the southern aristocracy and letting them re-introduce what amounts to slavery.

[Yupster]

19. To me they missed the obvious # 1

which was Lincoln demanding a quota of militia from each state to be used to put down the seven seceeded states in 1861.

Aside from the fact that the president calling forth the militia is blaantly unconstitutional, Lincoln's blunder forced the eight slave states which had not seceeded to choose sides.

Before Lincoln's call only South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had seceeded.

There were eight slave states which had not.

They were Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri.

Of those Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee were by far the most important because of their large populations.

Whether to secede or not was a hard call in all of those states, but without them the Confederacy would not be able to field an army that could challenge the USA. Of the seceded states, only Georgia had any appreciable population at all.

In fact, Tennessee had just held a special popular vote on whether to call a secession convention, and the vote was a narrow "no".

Then Lincoln makes in my opinion the biggest blunder that any president has ever made. He demands that each of those states provide troops for the invasion of the Cofederacy and gives each state a quota.

That forced each state to make up its mind. Tennessee quickly held another vote and voted 80-20 to leave the country. So did Virginia, and Arkansas and Noth Carolina went too. Kentucky declared its neutrality but along with Missouri had congressional representation in both countries during the war. Delaware stayed and Maryland called a meeting of the legislature but the pro-secession legislators were arrested which ended that problem.

Anyway, Lincoln's blunder turned the Civil War into our largest bloodbath.

Imagine a Civil War where Robert E Lee, JEB Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Dick Ewell, Jubal Early, AP Hill, etc all fought for the Union? It would have been a much smaller and shorter war.

And by the way, what state lost the most men in the Civil War? North Carolina. The last state to join the Confederacy, thanks to Lincoln's Bush-like diplomacy.

I can't believe the historians missed this one which to me is the clear # 1.