Top 10 Most Embarrassing U.S. Presidential Moments

[Riggo-toni]

I think the dilemma with this thread is how one defines embarrassing.

Are we talking about most scandalous, or are we talking about literal embarrassment.

GHB puking on a Japanese minister is embarrassing, but not a scandal. Clinton being caught in a lie and delving into the semantics of the word "is" is embarrassing, but was overblown as a scandal.

The Watergate coverup was a scandal, but the most embarrassing moments were when the tapes showed Nixon repeatedly using racial epithets during his semi-paranoid rants.

Trail of Tears and slavery are undoubtedly the gravest blemishes on our history. They are uncomfortable topics that are irreconcilable with our purported values. Do they qualify as embarrassing?

[Larry]

Trail of Tears and slavery are undoubtedly the gravest blemishes on our history.

I'd put the internment camps in that league, too.

in fact, I'd probably put the camps first on the list. (And maybe segregation, second). Because they were more recent.

I can kinda dismiss things like slavery with a wave of the hand and a "well, things were different, way back then".

But the internment camps weren't that far outside of my lifetime. And the end of segregation was in my lifetime. We had TV and airplanes and rocket ships and cars then.  Makes it harder for me to act like it happened when we were riding dinosaurs. 

 

---

 

But, (like I already said), I agree with your larger point.  "Embarrassing" is things that are funny.  I don't want a list of "most terrible things our country has done".  I want "most worthy of being on The Daily Show". 

[JMS]

The real #1.

 

William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States (1909-1913), was a large man. He reportedly weighed 355 pounds while in office, and according to rumor, he was so large that he once got stuck in the white house bathtub.

 

 

Taft was President William McKinley's head of the Philippine Commission.   The Philippines were in revolt of the US presents.  McKinley sent Taft to negotiate with the Philippines  which became the basis of the book "Imperial Cruze".     Anyway when Taft's ship got into the Philippines  Taft sent McKinley a telegram saying, "I just arrived at the talks.  I got in yesterday and I rode all night".     McKinley sent back a response..... "How's the horse?"

[JMS]

So it's only embarrassing to completely ignore the Constitution if you disagree with the reason? It has nothing to do with being Southern. It's pretty embarrassing that we are still talking about Northern and Southern 150+ years removed form the Civil War.

 

Lincoln literally saved the Union.   Yes he shredded the Constitution to do it.   For this he goes down as one of our 4 greatest Presidents.

 

Another one of our 4 greatest Presidents was FDR.    He's on that list for the Japanese detentions which were constitutional but not on that list for his illegal sales of weapons to keep Great Britain in the war which certainly would have gotten him impeached at the time if the Nation knew.    He gutted the us military and sent a lot of their equipment to the UK,  so much so that our own troops in 1940 and 41 were training with broom sticks for guns and wheel barrels for tanks.

[GhostofSparta]

Just, as a country, I think the whole Birther movement is one of the most embarrassing things ever. Maybe doesn't count since it's not embarrassing for Obama, just us as a country to the rest of the world.

[JMS]

Just, as a country, I think the whole Birther movement is one of the most embarrassing things ever. Maybe doesn't count since it's not embarrassing for Obama, just us as a country to the rest of the world.

 

 

Well we actually had a political party in the 1840s and 50's called the "knowNothings" made up of largely first and second generation Americans who opposed immigration.    

 

We had probable the most influential sec treasury ever killed in cold blood by a man who had tied in votes for the Presidency with Hamilton and Burr.

 

The reason why Burr shot Hamilton was because Hamilton wrote in the local newspaper that Burr was sleeping with his own daughter.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Disclaimer: I am not a democrat.  Nor am I a liberal.  I'm a moderate, and fiscal conservative.  I also happen not to be a Republican.  But I voted for Romney and Dole, and would have voted for George H. W. Bush if I was old enough (I wasn't). I campaigned for McCain in the primaries in 2000.   In fact, the only democrat I've ever voted for was Kerry, and I did that holding my nose.  

 

That said, the entire George W. Bush presidency was the biggest embarrassment to the country in history, with the possible exception of watergate.  Though, I'm not sure, I might put Bush ahead of it.  I dare anybody who's even remotely unbiased to say otherwise.  There is not one single solitary thing that Bush did in 8 years that wasn't embarrassing. Ok, there's 1.  Give credit where credit is due: his speech in front of congress and to the nation after 9/11 was brilliant.  

 

Let's examine the big events of the Bush presidency:

 

1. Take the first opportunity to pay down the national debt (which is the very definition of being a fiscal conservative, btw) and squander it by giving tax rebates.  Definition of fiscal irresponsibility.

 

(I'm not going to blame him for 9/11.  That was an act of mad men.)

 

2. Attack Afghanistan in the most stupid way possible, fighting the war on terrorism on the terrorists terms.  Btw, that decision is still costing us BILLIONS.

 

3.

Option A) Lying to the face of the American people about why we were going to war with Iraq.  Thus starting a second war in the middle east, which only caused MORE Muslims to hate us, if we didn't have enough already. You don't think those chickens have come home to roost?

 

Option Acting on bad information about Iraq hastily.  If the intelligence community said there were WMD, and there weren't, that's still on Bush's meal ticket, as all of those agencies report to him.  

 

Either way, the Iraq war was all on Bush.  Either he knew and lied, or he presided over horrible information.  I think it's the former.  But it's 100% on him regardless.  And for the record, the terrorists that attacked us, Al Qaeda, did not have a presence in Iraq.  They did in Pakistan (where Osama was eventually found), probably Saudi Arabia (where he was from), and Iran.  But not Iraq.  Hell, Saddam, while being a REALLY REALLY bad guy never threatened us. He just wanted to essentially be left alone to torture his people.  I'm not saying that he didn't need to be removed. But we didn't need to alienate the entire world to do it. 

 

And don't give me the new "The Democrats were complicit!" bull crap.  At that time, anybody who wasn't with the President was essentially labeled a terrorist sympathizer.  The marching order, from the white house, was "We must conquer all of the brown people that attacked us on 9/11! Anybody who descents is un-American!" (Gee, doesn't that sound familiar...)

 

4. Complete bungling of the Iraq War, spending TRILLIONS of dollars. 

 

5. Complete bungling of the Hurricane Katrina natural disaster.

 

6. Overseeing the meltdown of the financial markets, requiring more trillions of dollars to be spent.  And don't give me this bull crap story that the Dems were to blame.  He was president, and the regulatory responsibility lies with him.

 

7. Presided over the greatest percentage increase in federal spending in the history of the country.  And yes, that even includes Obama.  On a percentage basis, our spending increased more under Bush than it did Obama. 

 

8. He couldn't say nuclear, and that really scares me.  

 

He left office with an approval rating around 30%.  Which means that even the a good number, if not majority, of republicans thought he was doing a bad job.  

 

Also don't try and and justify that Bush was ok because Obama has been worse. 

 

The attempt at re-making history and brain-washing on Fox News about the Bush administration is something that I've never seen before.  

 

/Rant

Just, as a country, I think the whole Birther movement is one of the most embarrassing things ever. Maybe doesn't count since it's not embarrassing for Obama, just us as a country to the rest of the world.

More republicans believe that Obama wasn't born in the US than know that Cruz was not.

 

And yes, that's a sad, sad, sad state of affairs.  

Lots of things on your list, I don't think qualify as "embarrassing".  "Treasonous" or "disastrous", maybe. 

"Embarrassing" things are supposed to be funny.

My favorite silly thing that Bush did was not knowing what door to walk out of when he was in China, I think.  And just stood there, looking completely befuddled.  

 

This I don't blame him for.  It was damn funny, though.  

[SkinsFTW]

Approximately half of the folks in this country REALLY want to sweep Iran Contra under the rug.

And the other half did the same with fast and furious with 0 held accountable.

Which one of the two was done for purely political reasons?

[Going Commando]

Trail of Tears deserves an honorable mention

It deserves to be at the top of the list.

As do the conduct of the Indian Wars during the presidencies of Johnson and Grant. Those are on a whole different level than Watergate and Japanese internment. We lied to, stole from, and murdered the Indians of the Great Plains, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. One of our most shameful national

Those gilded age presidencies as a whole were just one long period of national embarrassment. The same is true of the antebellum presidencies coming after John Quincy Adams until we got to Lincoln. Excepting Zachary Taylor and James K Polk, there is no other stretch in our history where the presidency was held by less worthy men.

[BornaSkinsFan83]

^^^

Reading "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" when I was 17 changed my life. That, the Iraq debacle and spending time in Tijuana slums are the three major things that made me who I am politically.

[zoony]

It deserves to be at the top of the list.As do the conduct of the Indian Wars during the presidencies of Johnson and Grant. Those are on a whole different level than Watergate and Japanese internment. We lied to, stole from, and murdered the Indians of the Great Plains, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. One of our most shameful nationalThose gilded age presidencies as a whole were just one long period of national embarrassment. The same is true of the antebellum presidencies coming after John Quincy Adams until we got to Lincoln. Excepting Zachary Taylor and James K Polk, there is no other stretch in our history where the presidency was held by less worthy men.

I think that narrative does an incredible disservice to the Native Americans. As if they were a bunch of dumb naive children that the big bad white man just came in and murdered and swindled because they were too stupid and weak to know better. I would much prefer the narrative, we're I NA, that my ancestors were so powerful and fierce that they held off Spanish, French, and English colonizers for hundreds and hundreds of years and did a plethora of rping, pillaging, stealing, and murdering of their own against white people who were dumb enough to enter Indian territory. And had it not been for germs and industrialization, my tribe would still own the southwestern and great plains portion of the US

Further, some of the most terrible atrocities and genocides perpetrated among NAs were at the hands of other tribes, such as what the Comanche did to the Apache. Also, Indian Wars were never between white men and NAs, they were ALWAYS an alliance of white men and NAs against more powerful NAs, with hundreds of years of tribal rivalries and bkttterness thrown into the mix. That the white man has somehow been singled out among this North American battle royal for being (a) white, and ( more effective, is lazy and reeks of self loathing.

[Going Commando]

I think you're flat out ignoring all of the treaties the US Government negotiated in bad faith and subsequently broke and the shameful and dishonorable conduct of US military commanders like Chivington and Sheridan. The army and whites in general did not view any Native American allies as partners or equals. They were opportunists who viewed Indians as subhuman and barriers to the progress of whites and they were frank about it.

[PokerPacker]

What about the time the Eisenhower made it illegal for gays to work for the Federal Government?

[SoulSkin]

I still have a functioning bottle opener that emits GW Bush quotes whenever I pop a cap. I still laugh at some of the crap he said. I think of that as more 'embarrassing', but also weirdly entertaining. I have a spare one still in the package for when whatever powers the thing dies out. Best dollar store purchases ever.

[TimmySmith]

The Iran Hostage situation and the tragic failure of the rescue was pretty embarrassing. I would put it at #3 on the list.

[balki1867]

On the personally embarrassing note, I'd go with (not in any particular order):

 

1) Bill Clinton laughing uncontrollably during a joint appearance with Boris Yeltsin

2) GWB's back rub to Angela Merkel

3) George Bush puking on the Japanese PM

4) Obama's State of the Union line about crying over spilled milk (there's probably a better Obama one, I just cant think of it)

5) Reagan unknowingly walking up to a live mic and announcing that we're bombing the Russians

6) Gerald Ford tripping and falling while walking up to Air Force One

7) Taft getting stuck in the bathtub

Also this

 

[balki1867]

That said, the entire George W. Bush presidency was the biggest embarrassment to the country in history, with the possible exception of watergate.  Though, I'm not sure, I might put Bush ahead of it.  I dare anybody who's even remotely unbiased to say otherwise.  There is not one single solitary thing that Bush did in 8 years that wasn't embarrassing. Ok, there's 1.  Give credit where credit is due: his speech in front of congress and to the nation after 9/11 was brilliant.  

 

It's kind of interesting when we talk about Bush these days.  I remember reading an Op-Ed piece near the end of his presidency that the one thing he never got credit for was keeping all the crazies in his party at bay.  When I read it, I thought it was one of the stupidest things I'd ever read, but looking at the past 8 years, it's shockingly true.

 

I'm not a fan of Dubya by any stretch of the imagination, but I do give him credit for his measured response after 9/11 (not resorting to Xenophobia and playing to the cheap seats), and things like PEPFAR. It'd be an outright shock to see a Republican even consider things like this today.

[Bozo the kKklown]

Bush dancing on stage at the Dallas police memorial service should be mentioned.

[Busch1724]

It's kind of interesting when we talk about Bush these days.  I remember reading an Op-Ed piece near the end of his presidency that the one thing he never got credit for was keeping all the crazies in his party at bay.  When I read it, I thought it was one of the stupidest things I'd ever read, but looking at the past 8 years, it's shockingly true.

 

I'm not a fan of Dubya by any stretch of the imagination, but I do give him credit for his measured response after 9/11 (not resorting to Xenophobia and playing to the cheap seats), and things like PEPFAR. It'd be an outright shock to see a Republican even consider things like this today.

 

 

I think that in time his presidency will not have as  a negative connotation that it does now. Hindsight being 20/20, sure there were bad things, historically bad. However, I would imagine with the advent of social media, presidents will not be held in as high regard as say someone like Reagan. Was Bush a good president? No, probably below average. Worst presidency ever? No. When Obama leaves office, many things will be critical of his 8 years. Was it as bad as it will be portrayed to be? No. Was it good? Probably not, but he did have to deal with the same crazies as Bush did. I think in hindsight, both did a decent job at fending off the extremist portion of the republican base.

[Voice_of_Reason]

It's kind of interesting when we talk about Bush these days.  I remember reading an Op-Ed piece near the end of his presidency that the one thing he never got credit for was keeping all the crazies in his party at bay.  When I read it, I thought it was one of the stupidest things I'd ever read, but looking at the past 8 years, it's shockingly true.

 

I'm not a fan of Dubya by any stretch of the imagination, but I do give him credit for his measured response after 9/11 (not resorting to Xenophobia and playing to the cheap seats), and things like PEPFAR. It'd be an outright shock to see a Republican even consider things like this today.

The reason that we are talking about Pres. Bush these days is because his presidency will have laid the foundation for multiple generations of issues.  It can't be under-sold how absolutely ridiculously damaging those 8 years will prove to be in the context of generational history.  

 

I actually completely take issue that there was any sort of a measured response.  And I disagree that he didn't resort to xenophobia.  I think he (or more rather, Rove's political machine) did.  And you're seeing the fruits of those seeds in the Trump campaign.  

 

And as far as keeping the crazies in his party at bay, maybe that's true.  The tea-party folks really didn't make main-stream news until Obama was elected.  So maybe Bush was able to keep them down.  That said, maybe he was able to do it too much.  

 

The Debt Ceiling was such a big issue under the Obama administration, because the Republicans wanted fiscal responsibility.  I'm good with that.  The debt ceiling, in 2002, was at 6.4 trillion.  By the time Obama took office, it was at 12.4 trillion.  Or roughly a 100% increase in the debt ceiling.  (And we never heard a word about it)

 

But when it had to get increased under Obama, where it went from 12.4 to ~17, which is both in real dollars and a percentage difference, less than the increase under Bush, the fiscal conservatives were out in force politicizing the thing.  

 

He did have a pet project about AIDS, and I'll give him credit for that.  But all of the AIDS regulations that he tried to pass also had anti-contraceptive measures, to appease the religious right.  As if abstinence only was going to solve the worldwide AIDS epidemic... 

[Riggo-toni]

W will go down as the President who set America on its course to bankruptcy, and bungled foreign entanglements that set the ME on fire. He grew the size of gov't at about 7 1/2% /year - the fastest increase measured by pct or $ of any president since FDR. He went his entire first term without vetoing a single spending bill - not one! And when did he finally veto one? When it was for stem cell research. He increased the size of gov't and the size of the debt more in his first term than Clinton did in 8 years. He pushed any military people that disagreed with him (ie Shinseki) into retirement or ineffectual posts so that when his barebones strategies in Iraq faced criticism, he and Rumsfeld et al could dismiss such criticisms as coming from "armchair generals," and when his policies went predictably south, he could insulate himself by claiming he merely "listened to his generals" - the sycophants he had put in charge.

[balki1867]

I don't disagree with any of the arguments against W's spending and warmongering, but his language surrounding Muslims and 9/11 was miles away from what we have to listen to today. That's not a trivial thing.  Go back and read his speech to Congress 9 days after 9/11-- he went out of his way at multiple points to highlight the many Muslims around the world that mourned our tragedy and to point out that Al Queda operated at the very fringe of society and didn't represent Islamic beliefs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html).

 

He doubled down on this in 2006 when a Muslim Secret Service agent was kicked off a flight because of paperwork issues (stating that he'd be "madder than heck" if he found out it was racial profiling).  http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92042

 

I'm not naive about all the long-term problems we're facing because of his presidency, but as a minority (especially as a brown man), I'd say President Bush is still many multiples better than the crop of Republicans we're seeing today.

[Riggo-toni]

True enough, but then again, nearly half of his cabinet was on the Saudi payroll, so it's not like he could use the same rhetoric as mouldy cheddar man.

[JMS]

I don't disagree with any of the arguments against W's spending and warmongering, but his language surrounding Muslims and 9/11 was miles away from what we have to listen to today. That's not a trivial thing.  Go back and read his speech to Congress 9 days after 9/11-- he went out of his way at multiple points to highlight the many Muslims around the world that mourned our tragedy and to point out that Al Queda operated at the very fringe of society and didn't represent Islamic beliefs (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html).

 

 

I think that speech on the 21st had a lot to do with his speech on Sept 18th when he offended all of our allies around the world and every moderate state in the middle east by claiming he was going to go on a CRUSADE in response to 9/11.....  He got a call from the pm of the UK, France and Germany over that one.

 

I think his subsequent speech hit such a consolatory tone because he had botched his previous statement so badly.    And then of coarse he went on to lie to the American people about who was responsible for the attack blaming it on Saddam in Iraq when Saddam had nothing to do with it..   coming clean 2 years latter and two weeks after our invasion of Iraq.

[RichmondRedskin88]

No one is gonna question how embarrassing W's presidency was but his advising was really bad. Dick in his ear was a disaster. Credit needs to be given to how he addressed 9/11. There was no we'll look into this. It was someone is gonna pay for this. Very post Pearl Harbor approach. Basically the world watching was like you go America!(except the Middle East)