Scholars Rate Worst Presidential Blunders

From Monica-gate to the Vietnam War escalation, U.S. presidents have have made some huge errors in judgement. According to a survey of presidential historians organized by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center,President James Buchanan gets the top "honors" for failing to avert the Civil War. Scholars who participated said Buchanan didn't do enough to oppose efforts by Southern states to secede from the Union before the Civil War.
The second worst mistake, the survey found, was Andrew Johnson's decision just after the Civil War to side with Southern whites during reconstruction by doing nothing for Southern blacks beyond abolishing slavery. We continue to pay for Johnson's errors.
The other Johnson,Lyndon, a third cousin of this writer, took the No. 3 spot for allowing the Vietnam War to intensify and escalate into a quagmire, much like today's Iraq scenario.
Where does Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal rank? Most scholars said it belonged at No. 10, saying that it affected Clinton's presidency (and sleeping quarters) more than it did American history and the public.

The rest of the top 10 blunders:

4: Woodrow Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, leading to a "do-over".

5: Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up. I think we have a new contender for this one. . .

6: James Madison's failure to keep the United States out of the War of 1812 with Britain. And for failing to stay current on his White House insurance premiums.

7: Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a self-imposed prohibition on trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars.

8: John F. Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs Invasion that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

9: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair, the effort to sell arms to Iran and use the money to finance an armed anti-communist group in Nicaragua. Arms that are now pointed our way. Reagan was elected primarily over the Iran hostage crisis, and THEN wanted to sell them ARMS? And they called Clinton and Kerry "flip-floppers".