How Will George Bush Be Judged?

Scholars Rate Worst Presidential Errors

By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer
Sat Feb 18, 2006

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." (full story)
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How They Stack Up:

1. James Buchanan -- failing to avert the Civil War.
2. Andrew Johnson -- siding with Southern whites after the Civil War, opposing justice for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery.
3. Lyndon Johnson -- allowing the Vietnam War to intensify.
4. Woodrow Wilson -- refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
5. Richard Nixon -- involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
6. James Madison -- failure to keep the US out of the War of 1812 with Britain.
7. Thomas Jefferson -- Embargo Act of 1807, prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.
8. John F. Kennedy -- the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
9. Ronald Reagan -- the Iran-Contra Affair.
10 Bill Clinton -- Monica Lewinsky scandal.