Which of these was the worst mistake made by a U.S. President?

[Lincoln Republican]

Which of these was the worst mistake made by a U.S. President?

Please vote and discuss should you wish.

[publicunofficial]

Gotta be Watergate.

[pbrower2a]

Watergate scandal as a political blunder. Even if Nixon did not have Republican Congressional majorities, he at least had plenty of conservative Democrats, especially from the South, on his side. Some of those conservative Democrats ended up on his 'Enemies List'.

Watergate was but the symptom of other misconduct. Breaking into the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg was simply criminal. Disclosure of physicians' confidential records is a crime.

The Teapot Dome scandal was the worst scandal of political corruption ever in America. 

[dead0man]

the one that got millions of people killed

[MarkD]

FDR did replace seven of the nine Justices in only a four-year time span, and his goal, vis-à-vis the Court-packing plan, was to get the Supreme Court to stop striking down New Deal laws, which it did do. He only lost a battle, but he won the war, so I don't think the court-packing plan was a "mistake" in any sense.

I'll go with Watergate.

[Incipimus iterum]

Escalation of Vietnam War.

[ag]

Vietnam has to be shared between JFK and LBJ. And, in the end, while it was, of course, much worse for the Vietnamese, its impact on the US was more limited. Nixon, without any help from anyone else, came close to destroying the way the US is governed.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Obama failing to release intelligence community reports on Trump before the election beats all of them, in long-term damage.

[mencken]

Obama failing to release intelligence community reports on Trump before the election beats all of them, in long-term damage.

Trump being elected President is worse than 60,000 American casualties for a lost cause?

[Rooney]

I think Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court was one of the worst decisions made by a modern president. I know that the Supreme Court had actively worked against the New Deal (ruling the AAA, minimum wage and the NRA to be unconstitutional) but FDR harmed his own Democratic Party in attempting to force the packing of the Supreme Court. His work to defeat Democratic senators in the 1938 primaries eroded support among the New Deal coalition and the Roosevelt Recession of 1938 helped the GOP gain 81 seats in the House of Representatives and 7 U.S. Senate seats. The GOP won 50% of the vote outside of the South for the first time since 1930.

Anger over FDR's overreach on the supreme bench could have cost the Democrats the White House in 1940 had FDR not run for reelection with the war scare. It is an amazing reversal from holding a 4 to 1 Democratic advantage in the House and a filibuster proof majority in the senate. The court packing scheme has to be one of the greatest political mistakes of the 20th Century. 

[Lincoln Republican]

I had considered putting the Iraq War under G W Bush as one of the options, but decided against it as I  believed the Iraq War would dominate the voting, and would not leave an accurate reading of how the other issues were viewed. 

[Mr. Smith]

Iran-Contra easily.

Followed by:

'Nam Escalation (both LBJ and Nixon are guilty of this one)
Watergate (Nixon)
Bay of Pigs (JFK)
Teapot Dome (Harding)
Lewinsky (Clinton)
Court Packing (FDR)
Iran (Carter)

[publicunofficial]

Thinking on it more, I'd put Vietnam over Watergate.

[Bismarck]

Court packing would be been the worst if he had gotten away with it, although the Japanese internment was probably the worst thing FDR ever did. Probably Vietnam escalation as far as long term impact, but the Bay of Pigs was the dumbest mistake, along with maybe Watergate.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'll rank them:

1. Watergate: Literally destroyed Nixon's reputation.  Now everyone sees him as pure evil and accuses him of crimes he DIDN'T commit.  Plus, it created a new trope where every subsequent scandal is labeled as "_______-gate."

2. Court packing plan: Just how FDR thought this would pass constitutional muster is beyond me.  It completely undermined the separation of powers, plus checks and balances.

3. Lewinsky scandal: While Clinton's crimes probably didn't merit impeachment, he still committed perjury and obstruction of justice (which, incidentally, is the real reason why he was impeached, not the affair itself.)

4. Teapot Dome: A scandal arguably worse than Watergate, but didn't leave as much of a bad taste in peoples' mouths.

5. Escalation of Vietnam War: Like the invasion of Iraq, was an honest mistake.  But in hindsight, we should have been able to see pretty soon after Tet that Vietnam was a lost cause.

6. Bay of Pigs Invasion: Like the Iraq war and the Vietnam escalation, was an honest mistake.  Not to mention that the US had a more direct interest in this mission.

7. Iran-Contra: Given the fact that the US government supported a number of authoritarian regimes during the Cold War simply by virtue of them being anti-communist (e.g. Jimenez and Pinochet), this was relatively minor scandal.

[Kingpoleon]

While being President?

[Crumpets]

So far as I know, none of these besides Vietnam directly resulted in tens if not hundreds of thousands of deaths. And sure, Vietnam probably still wouldn't have been a great situation if we weren't involved, but it probably wouldn't have been much worse.

[eric82oslo]

1. The two atomic bombs in 1945. The war could easily have been won without them, although it would have taken a few more weeks, perhaps 2-3 more months.
2. The escalation of the Vietnam war. This actually caused 100,000s if not millions of lives. Totally irresponsible, particularily looking back at it today knowing that US eventually lost the war so badly.
3. Watergate. The worst political scandal in US history, but at least noone was killed or hurt.

[dead0man]

1. The two atomic bombs in 1945. The war could easily have been won without them, although it would have taken a few more weeks, perhaps 2-3 more months.

and a LOT more people would have died versus reality.  Saving lives is a mistake?

[The_Doctor]

What, no mention of Buchanan's letting the Union break apart in his final months in the White House?

[Lincoln Republican]

What, no mention of Buchanan's letting the Union break apart in his final months in the White House?

I realize that the Civil War resulted in the tragic deaths of many thousands, an estimated 620,000.

But one could argue that the breakup of the union resulted in the abolishment of slavery.

The abolishment of slavery was one of the greatest and most momentous developments in the history of the United States, in fact, in the history of the entire world.

[Pericles]

Nobody died in Watergate. LBJ's decision to enter the US into a disastrous war undermined trust in government too, it was a political mistake as it destroyed his presidency and split the Democratic Party, without it LBJ would have run and won in 1968 and the Democrats would likely have governed until 1972 or 1976. It also resulted in the deaths of thousands and undermined America abroad. I'll say Vietnam.

[The_Doctor]

What, no mention of Buchanan's letting the Union break apart in his final months in the White House?

I realize that the Civil War resulted in the tragic deaths of many thousands, an estimated 620,000.

But one could argue that the breakup of the union resulted in the abolishment of slavery.

The abolishment of slavery was one of the greatest and most momentous developments in the history of the United States, in fact, in the history of the entire world.

Yeah but the Union breaking up in your final months in the White House definitely counts as a big mistake of some proportion.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Vietnam killed 58,315 US soldiers, the Great Society, and dealt a heavy blow to the American Presidency as an office worthy of respect and veneration.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Vietnam, obviously. Although I'd argue that Iran-Contra was far more morally reprehensible.

From a pure policy (not moral) pov though I'd like to nominate the Embargo Act of 1807 as the single worst decision made by a US president. Although perhaps the Jacksonian Bank War was worse.