Biggest administration boondoggle?

[Doc]

Seems that each of the last 7 presidents have had some type of controversial issue. Below are the most egregious ones (IMO) for each of the last Presidents in my lifetime. Which is worse? Also feel free to expand on your reasoning.

Dangit....Missed Nixon!!!

[Doc]

I picked Biden, barely over Carter. Both made America look and be weak but Biden's choice meant more American killed, thus Jimmy gets number 2

#3 would be Reagan/Bush and the Iran Contra. Really stained a great President.

#4 Obama's Benghazi. Americans lost, the reasons covered up.

#5 Bush-I believe there were weapons, but am in the minority

#6 Clinton-is more a personal embarrassment thing

#7 Trump-100% fake from day 1

Now if I include Nixon, he slides in at number 4. Tricky Dick was only guilty of covering up, not the actual breakin. .

[Catonahottinroof]

Jimmy Carter has breathed a sigh of relief since he’s lived long enough to see his name come off the top (bottom lol) of the worst president list…

[TNCat]

I voted for Russian collusion only because I misunderstood the pole. I think it was garbage. Biden and Afghanistan would be my vote as the biggest blunder. And, only who knows what they are going to do to economy.

[dan_bgblue]

Biden#1 + Southern Border + Inflation + Pipeline stupidity
Obama #2 + Fast and Furious + Iran Treaty not approved by congress
Carter #3
Bush #4

[MickintheHam]

I voted Carter only because it lasted so long.

[CitizenBBN]

IMO one of the bigger factors in the ranking has to be how much of it was inherited and how much was self-inflicted in the Administration.

Carter's was obviously very bad, and very humiliating, and leaving hostages there for so long is a big deal, BUT, the Iranian Revolution was decades in the making and while the US did try some negotiations with the Islamic forces and the Shah, it was almost sure to be too little too late. The US did not have a direct presence there to actually take military action. While one could argue that we should have evacuated sooner, that's tough to do while trying to support he current government, and it was harder to foresee the timing of the situation.

Arguably Carter should have reduced US presence there after the student riots that partially destroyed the British embassy, but other than that a lot of what happened there was tough to reverse. It was almost a full year between the first riots attacking an embassy and the overrunning of the US embassy. The situation in Afghanistan became extremely clear really fast yet nothing was done.


Biden inherited the Afghanistan situation, but the situation had in the last year largely stabilized. A very reasonable course of action would have been to maintain a presence there to back the government, but remove civilians and allies down to a small number and maintain control of Bagrham air base. The lack of fighting gave us the options to either try for a maintained stalemate with only about 2,500 troops in country, or at least a very controlled withdrawal.

What we got was a rushed cluster f*** that, in proud politician tradition, tied our military's hands while giving them absurdly optimistic goals. The Pentagon has said publicly that Biden would not approve the troop levels requested to evacuate by today. That's a cold hard statement.

There was no need for it to go this badly, and when it started to go bad there was absolutely no reassessment and addressing of the situation.

[CitizenBBN]

As for Bush I and the Iraqi War (thinking Doc means Bush I here, not Bush II), you just about have to rank a war above all the others, if that war was unjustified.

Clearly the WMD justification was false, so if you take it on just that then it's #1. Lost lives of Americans, a LOT of lost Iraqi lives, and a lot of Americans with the permanent scars of war.

The question is, was that the only or even one of the real justifications, and if not then was it justified otherwise?

Too much to debate here, but that's how you rank this one. If the war was justified otherwise (and clearly a LOT of other nations thought it was b/c they were there too), then the failure was on how the war was presented to the American people.

So if THAT is what we are ranking on, and not the war itself, then it goes like this:

Worst to least:

#1 Biden (the worst foreign policy and impact in lives with the LEAST overall justification or forced reason to have such costs, i.e. this was more avoidable and caused a lot of damage)

#2 Carter (a lot of damage, but maybe not as much damage, and was less avoidable

#3 Bush I Gulf War (even if war was justified, you cannot justify a war to people through bad intelligence and/or lies)

#4 Obama Beghazi (loss of US lives for no reason other than the hubris of politicians and esp. Hillary clinton)

#5 Reagan Iran/contra (embarrassing, but going back on a 'no negotiation' stance is not really the end of the world, but has to be ranked even though such secret operations are the norm for post WWII America (the contra money thing), it is still not the way America should operate.

#6 Clinton (embarrassing, but was stupid to impeach him)

#7 Trump Russia (should be #1 if we are ranking threats to democracy, not b/c of Trump but b/c it showed how the US media is now nothing more than propaganda for the Left, which is the real threat to our liberty, but as for Trump's actions he did nothing wrong, it was all a BS snow job)

[KeithKSR]

I voted Carter only because it lasted so long.

I remember ABC doing nightly reports during the hostage crisis, “America Held Hostage” they usually included the number of days as a graphic. After the crisis was over the show was continued as Nightline with Ted Koppel as the host.

[Doc]

Biden#1 + Southern Border + Inflation + Pipeline stupidity
Obama #2 + Fast and Furious + Iran Treaty not approved by congress
Carter #3
Bush #4

LOL...I did not know which of the "non scandals" under Obama to pick. You are right about Fast and Furious though, as well as clandestine payments to Iran

[KeithKSR]

The Bush I war began with Iraq invading Kuwait, it wasn’t over WMD. The war lasted less than six weeks and people were critical of George HW Bush for not pursuing the Iraqi forces all the way to Baghdad. Bush II was the one who sent troops into Iraq over the intelligence reports of WMD.

[Doc]

PS..glad to see so many responses. Feared it would be a lost post.

I admit that I tried to be nonpartisan in my ranking.

[KeithKSR]

LOL...I did not know which of the "non scandals" under Obama to pick. You are right about Fast and Furious though, as well as clandestine payments to Iran

I am still amazed at the end of his tenure Obama cited not having any scandals was something he was most proud of.

[Doc]

I am still amazed at the end of his tenure Obama cited not having any scandals was something he was most proud of.

Agree. He had many. The riots outside of St Louis with Micheal Brown, and NYC with "I can't Breathe", plus fast and furious, plus Hilary's server, plus plane loads of cash...and add Joe's quid pro quo moment as VP. Was tough to pick one

[KeithKSR]

Agree. He had many. The riots outside of St Louis with Micheal Brown, and NYC with "I can't Breathe", plus fast and furious, plus Hilary's server, plus plane loads of cash...and add Joe's quid pro quo moment as VP. Was tough to pick one

The IRS intentionally denying tax exempt status for the conservative groups was huge. That was a major blow to the Tea Party movement as none were approved by the IRS from February 2010 to mid 2012. It was likely a huge factor in the 2012 elections.

[CitizenBBN]

Obama's 'scandals' weren't really scandals b/c the media refused to report them.

Fast and Furious was HUGE. Enough by itself to bring down a presidency politically, or at least make it a lame duck. Got no coverage.

The IRS scandal same thing. Nixon was crucified for his enemies list and using the government against them even in potential.

All this, and Obama actually prosecuted more media and more whistleblowers than any other administration.

[CitizenBBN]

BTW, like I said, in the interest of being non-partisan, if the Gulf War was NOT justified, i.e. we judge Bush not on the WMD question but the war itself and conclude it was not justified, then it vaults to #1.

If Doc is referring to Bush II and the start of Afghanistan, that's a different question. And EVERY US president has made mistakes there. But again, Biden's stands out b/c his mistakes have been the most self-inflicted. With such a small number of US casualties in the preceeding year and with the situation as it stood there was no need or requirement to be so brash and and foolhardy in how this was done, blindsiding even our NATO allies.

[Doc]

BTW, like I said, in the interest of being non-partisan, if the Gulf War was NOT justified, i.e. we judge Bush not on the WMD question but the war itself and conclude it was not justified, then it vaults to #1.

If Doc is referring to Bush II and the start of Afghanistan, that's a different question. And EVERY US president has made mistakes there. But again, Biden's stands out b/c his mistakes have been the most self-inflicted. With such a small number of US casualties in the preceeding year and with the situation as it stood there was no need or requirement to be so brash and and foolhardy in how this was done, blindsiding even our NATO allies.

I was referring to Bush II and his WMD justification