Which Leader of Your Country do you Feel Most Embarrassed By?

OK, to explain a bit.

Inspired by the Pit thread on Australia’s Tony Abbot, I am wondering which leader since WWII presented the worst public face since to the world. It doesn’t mean the worst leader per se. You could appreciate the person’s politics and policies and still be ashamed of how he or she seemed stupid or inarticulate. I am no fan of GWB’s policies, but I know several conservatives who are but still acknowledge his tendency to look foolish.

For the US, I would nominate Carter, GWB, and maybe Ford, and give the award to GWB. Objectively I think he probably is pretty intelligent, but he sure never seemed it.

This really isn’t meant to be a political debate. I am particularly interested in whom the non-US dopers really cringe over.

George W. Bush. Torture, war on false premises, and numerous civil rights violations on a huge scale easily outclass the misdeeds of any other American politician in history.

Tony Abbott. On two occasions our last Prime Minister of note, Julia Gillard, did things that I found pretty damn contemptible, but I don’t think Abbott has any setting but “raging asshole”. How he goes through the day without his balls hammered into his throat is beyond me.

Cheney

Embarrassment is too weak a word.

But Cheney wasn’t… Oh.

:stuck_out_tongue:

I’d go for Cheney.

Can I choose both Cheney and GWB ?

Bush for being a goofy dumbass, and Cheney for being pure evil.

I thought Natalie Maines had it right. Not only Texas but most of the USA had reason to be embarrassed and ashamed of W Bush.

He was in over his head in the first place. Then he let PNAC / the *Weekly Standard *boys push an invasion which was horribly timed and for which we were completely unprepared.

ETA: Oh, and he should have been impeached for his “interpretation” of the Geneva Accords. Seriously–since they’re out of office now; I think it is again safely legal to say that in a just world, W, Darth Cheney, and Rummy would all either have been tried and imprisoned; or, failing that, assassinated.

I only can count heads of state since WWII? Because Spain has only had three, of which one was a dictator and another has held the job for a few months. If we can go farther back or go one or two steps lower down, things get more interesting.

A little bit further back, a king (Alfonso XIII) who used some electoral results where the republican parties had good results in the biggest cities as an excuse to drop a job he didn’t want. And a bit further down, a President (Felipe González) who claims he didn’t know his Minister of the Interior was behind the creation and funding of terrorist group GAL.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?ie=UTF-8&source=android-browser&hl=en-GB&q=clegg+is+wallace&gfe_rd=cr&ei=LyqIVJGNBvHN7AbTyYCIAw#hl=en-GB&q=clegg+looks+like+wallace&facrc=_&imgrc=cokBMsiFqW4TUM%253A%3Bundefined%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.telegraph.co.uk%252Fnews%252Ffiles%252F2012%252F03%252Fwallace-miliband.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.telegraph.co.uk%252Fnews%252Ftomchiversscience%252F100145718%252Fbudget-2012-that-wallace-and-gromit-was-a-low-blow-but-it-will-probably-stick%252F%3B460%3B288

The man can’t even eat a bacon sandwich without looking stupid.
He’s not GB’s leader but in 2015, he might be.

If I was older, probably Anthony Eden would get the nod, but I don’t really know enough about him. Of those I do have experience with, (or have seen more footage of those pre-1979), I would say Gordon Brown came off as a complete buffoon.

For the Netherlands, prince Bernhard. Married to our queen Juliana. Blatantly corrupt: he took money to get the Dutch Airforce to buy some overpriced Lockheed aeroplanes. ( Lockheed scandal) . With the money, he paid for the two women he carried on lifelong affairs with while married to our Queen. Tthe bigamist SOB even had kids with his mistresses. Later he even tried to have his wife declared insane and locked up, because she got a bit woo-woo over a faith healer that claimed te be able to heal their sick daughter. The man was a disgrace, and worse of all, he managed to get away with most of it.

As an Australian I can confidently predict that our next Prime Minister will be the worst one ever. Since I started voting our political leaders have become progressively worse regardless of which party they are from.

Look at this for a hall of shame:

Liberal Leaders:

Malcolm Fraser
Andrew Peacock
John Howard
Andrew Peacock
John Hewson
Alexander Downer
John Howard
Brendan Nelson
Malcolm Turnbull
Tony Abbott

Labor Leaders :

Bill Hayden
Bob Hawke
Paul Keating
Kim Beazley
Simon Crean
Mark Latham
Kim Beazley
Kevin Rudd
Julia Gillard
Kevin Rudd
Bill Shorten

Try to convince me that either party is improving the quality of their leadership.

Tony Blair - mainly for being the USA’s bitch, the subsequent war crimes, and for his lying to Parliament and the people to that end.

I don’t think he’s mentally well.

Fought the Germans during the war though?

Germany

Martin Schulz (Current President of the European Parliament):

amateur politician, dumb (hasn’t learned to speak one foreign language during his decades in European politics), foul-mouthed and thin-skinned
Peer Steinbrück (Former German Minister of Finance):

arrogant, threatened Switzerland with military invasion (sort of tongue-in-cheek, but still extremely rude)

Jacob Zuma (current South African president) has even PW Botha beat. And that’s given that Botha likely extended Apartheid by 10 years. And the guy before Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, was an outright AIDS denialist in a country with one of the highest HIV rates, so you should have a sense of how high (low?) the bar is. But Zuma manages to surpass them.

Sorry, the link suggests you googled Clegg. I think you mean Ed Miliband?

Feeling massively stupid. I was torn between Nick Clegg’s " sorry, so sorry, rap" on YouTube, and Ed Milliband’s wallace head, and it all got finger fumbled.
Tony Blair is just plain evil, and Brown sold out the gold.
Spoilt for choice, we are.