Warren G. Harding made the mistake of appointing too many of his friends and longtime allies to important government positions.They went on to betray and embarrass him through a number of scandals, especially Teapot Dome. As a result, Harding's brief administration is generally considered as one of the most corrupt in American history. Known as the "Ohio Gang," they included Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, Postmaster General Will Hays, Veteran's Bureau Director Charles Forbes, Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, Thomas W. Miller, and Jess Smith who was an aid to Daugherty. After Harding's death on August 2, 1923, and subsequent investigations, the Ohio Gang unraveled in spectacular fashion.
Daugherty resigned in March 1924 as a result of a bootleggers kickback scam.
Fall was jailed for conspiracy and bribery.
Hays resigned to become president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America.
Denby resigned following the Teapot Dome Scandal, which linked him with fraudulent oil field leases.
In the category of "I wish I hadn't done that," we'll nominate George H. W. Bush for best performance of a president vomiting on a another country's head of state. On January 8, 1992, Bush was in Tokyo at a state dinner being held in his honor at the home of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. A video of the incident shows Bush's chin dipping to his chest, as if he's falling asleep. But the next moment he loses consciousness and topples to his left, vomiting on Miyazawa's lap. While Secret Service agents rush to help him (one leaps over the head table) Barbara Bush speeds to her husband's side with a napkin. Commotion ensues. After a while, Bush adequately recovers to stand up, smile and pump his arm in victory.
Imagine a president suffering a stroke while in office and being almost entirely incapacitated by an illness for more than a year. Now imagine that his illness is kept secret from his vice president, cabinet and the nation. While you're at it, imagine his wife serving as acting president. Unimaginable today. But it happened. Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke in September 1919. For the remaining year and a half of his presidency, his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, was, by all accounts, the shadow president. She took over the day-to-day operations of the White House to such an extent that she is often referred to as the first woman president. The seriousness of Wilson's illness was kept secret until after his death. Certainly, Wilson should have resigned the presidency, but the First Lady was against the ascendancy of Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall--unthinkable by today's standards and, we think, a misguided and unfair blunder. Wilson's illness, incapacitation and subsequent secrecy helped lead to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on presidential succession. Learn more at The Edith Bolling Wilson Birthplace Foundation.
Sometimes, presidents point fingers at themselves. For a time, George W. Bush famously denied he made any mistakes. But at least one predecessor took a more modest view of himself. Dwight Eisenhower has been quoted as saying the two biggest mistakes of his presidency were the appointments of Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Kim Eisler, who wrote a biography of Brennan, Eisenhower's regret was documented in Justice Harold Burton's diaries. Says Eisler: Burton recounts a meeting with Eisenhower in 1957, when he told the President he was leaving the Supreme Court. He confirms that Eisenhower expressed his regrets in appointing Warren and Justice Brennan and described both appointments as big mistakes. The President described the favorable recommendation he had received on Justice Brennan as ''off-base.'' Eisenhower finished his observations to Burton by saying that in finding a replacement, he would pay more attention to ideology than he had in the Warren and Brennan appointments, which were both made for political reasons.You can read Eisler's full comments here, as published in The New York Times.
Gerald Ford might have won in 1976 if he hadn't made one of the biggest gaffes in the history of presidential debates. On October 6, 1976, during a debate with Jimmy Carter at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts Theater, Ford made his infamous claim: "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." Ford's questioner, Max Frankel, who was then associate editor of The New York Times, smiles and clearly exhibits a look of disbelief. Frankel says, "Did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence in occupying most of the countries there and in and making sure with their troops that it's a Communist zone, whereas on our side of the line the Italians and the French are still flirting with the possibility of Communism?" Unflinching and in his wooden monotone, Ford doesn't back down. Instead, he digs himself in even deeper: "I don't believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union." Ford refused to retract or modify his statement during the following weeks. And he lost the election which, at that time, was the closest since 1916. (White House Photograph Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library)
The award for dumbest presidential decision might as well go to William Henry Harrison who, on March 4, 1841, gave the longest inauguration speech in history...and perhaps died from it. The facts are well documented. His speech of more than 8,000 words took about two hours to deliver, and in a snowstorm, no less. Worse, he wasn't wearing a hat or overcoat. Four weeks later, on April 4th, the hero of Tippecanoe died from complications that began with a cold. Whether delivering his lengthy speech in such conditions led to his illness, there's no telling. But who wants to hear someone talk for two hours anyway? Today, Harrison's claim to fame is the shortest presidency. At least it's something. If you care to read the mammoth speech, you can find it here.
Who has screwed up the most? Presidents, that is. Easy to point a finger at a number of W's decisions. Or Nixon's Watergate fiasco. Maybe Clinton's affair with Lewinsky. Hey, we've got time. Let's talk about them all. To start, some presidential scholars blame Buchanan for the Civil War. If true, I guess that might win the prize. The University of Louisville's McConnell Center conducted a Presidential Mistakes Survey, ranking Buchanan's failure to oppose secession as the top error of all time. The full survey will help get this blog started. Check it out here.
Yep, I'm getting to be an expert on presidential blunders. Hell, I wrote a book about one of the biggest. If you want to nominate one, or if you want to yell at me, send email to prezblog@gmail.com.
Warren G. Harding made the mistake of appointing too many of his friends and longtime allies to important government positions. They went on to betray and embarrass him through a number of scandals, especially Teapot Dome. As a result, Harding's brief administration is generally considered as one of the most corrupt in American history. Known as the "Ohio Gang," they included Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, Postmaster General Will Hays, Veteran's Bureau Director Charles Forbes, Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, Thomas W. Miller, and Jess Smith who was an aid to Daugherty. After Harding's death on August 2, 1923, and subsequent investigations, the Ohio Gang unraveled in spectacular fashion.
