# Which Leader of Your Country do you Feel Most Embarrassed By? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 10, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811 "2014-12-10T01:58:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/61 "2014-12-12T02:57:57Z")
GWB. That episode where he, in a fit of characteristic bumbling, thoughtless, patronizing folksiness, gave Angela Merkel a creepy neck rub in front of the entire G8 summit kind of encapsulates it. I mean, what was he _thinking_, to do something like that to the Chancellor of Germany? Totally embarrassing public behavior, and you never quite knew when a fit would strike him. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/62 "2014-12-12T04:10:15Z")
Bob Hawke was actually a pretty damn good leader, but he had a talent for coming across like a drunken lecherous fool. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/63 "2014-12-12T08:21:33Z")
Of countries I have lived in? Um, I guess Baby Doc wasn’t terribly impressive, but I was very small then. Yeah, GWB does win hands down. In both ways–and in his case, I think there is a common thread of depraved indifference there. Sorry for taking it in a different direction than you wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/64 "2014-12-12T14:32:14Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > 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. > [@AK84](#): > > Fought the Germans during the war though? Sort of. Solely because of being married to the queen, he was the titular head of our airforce, and got a lot of medals for it afterward. Yes, he enjoyed playing soldier, enjoyed fast cars and fast planes, enjoyed playing a sort of James Bond style life. He was popular with many soldiers. But you’d be hard pressed to find any expert who would say his role was much beyond that of a symbol. And a playboy flying expensive planes. [Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Bernhard_of_Lippe-Biesterfeld) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/65 "2014-12-12T16:12:03Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I’m impressed with the way in which posters are continuing to ignore the OP’s parameters for the thread, which he has stated repeatedly. This wasn’t supposed to be about policies, politics, or leadership. The basic question is along the lines of “which leader seemed most like a bumbling idiot while engaged in things other than official duties?” not “which leader steered the country into its darkest days with evil policies and nonexistent leadership?”. > > This is why we can’t have nice things. My answer remains unchanged. Reagan was routinely derided around the world as a “cowboy” and his pandering to his supporters with anachronistic jokes about hippies and welfare queens pretty much announced to the outside world that “yes, we are indeed a nation of cheerful idiots here. But we’ve got a big military.” ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/66 "2014-12-14T19:57:47Z")
I’m in the United States, so I’ll have to go with George W. Bush. It’s patently ridiculous to compare Obama to an administration that authorized torture, started a war under false pretenses, completely mismanaged that war, drove the economy into the ground, exposed an active CIA agent for cheap political retribution, botched the effort led by an incompetent crony in response to a serious natural disaster, and so many other examples I could name. Bush was an incompetent, clueless, partisan, corrupt hack. The other presidents mentioned above have at least some selling points: the end of the cold war under Reagan (and even if he doesn’t deserve credit for its ending, he at least didn’t botch it), the Camp David accords under Carter, Nixon’s genuine foreign policy triumphs, etc. Bush just sucked at everything. > [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Bob Hawke was actually a pretty damn good leader, but he had a talent for coming across like a drunken lecherous fool. He did formerly hold the world record for speed in drinking a yard of beer (11s). ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/67 "2014-12-14T21:32:45Z")
Tough choice between Gordon Brown and Edward Heath, but I’d have to pick Brown just because I remember him. He was a useless Chancellor, unable to contain his resentment for Blair (who I don’t like much, but at least was a strong and relatively principled leader, compared at least to the rest of his party at the time) and willing to damage the UK economy to do so. Then, on finally becoming PM, he was worse than useless, lost the election embarrassingly, then sulked because no-one would choose to form a coalition with him. The last is probably the worst, to be honest, in terms of sheer contempt for everyone around him. Heath was just a bit pathetic, really. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/68 "2014-12-14T21:48:52Z")
For the U.K., I’ll nominate Prince Charles. A basically good man but an utter prat. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/69 "2014-12-14T21:57:46Z")
> [@BOOM](#): > > 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. Yep. I’m embarrassed to say his party, with him in charge, is the only time I have ever voted. 1997, what happened? ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/70 "2014-12-14T23:33:44Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > but I’d have to pick Brown just because I remember him. He was a useless Chancellor, unable to contain his resentment for Blair (who I don’t like much, but at least was a strong and relatively principled leader, compared at least to the rest of his party at the time) That’s the first time I’ve heard ‘principled’ and Blair in the same sentence. Do not forget who made Brown chancellor. Gordon Brown is just a more impotent, saner, less charismatic version of Blair. That being said, he really [excelled himself in his defence of the Union](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39bBV7CBJk) so I can’t criticise him too much… > [@Quartz](#): > > For the U.K., I’ll nominate Prince Charles. A basically good man but an utter prat. He’s way too opinionated to be a silent figurehead. If he becomes king then I’ll probably become a republican. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/71 "2014-12-14T23:59:10Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The basic question is along the lines of “which leader seemed most like a bumbling idiot while engaged in things other than official duties?” Still W. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/72 "2014-12-15T00:09:49Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Early in Obama’s tenure, he received a gift from the British prime minister: a pen holder made of wood salvaged from an anti-slave ship. He reciprocated with a collection of movies on DVDs, which were later found to be coded for Region 1 (i.e. could not be played on British DVD players). Classy. Obama isn’t descended from slaves. Classy and patronizing. > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > He also inexplicably returned a bust of Winston Churchill that they had loaned to us after 9/11. This caused quite a stir across the pond. Not inexplicable at all if you’re familiar with the [Churchill government’s policies in Kenya](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising) and what it meant for [Obama’s grandfather.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1373650/Mau-Mau-rebellion-Torture-rebels-including-Obamas-grandfather.html) ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/73 "2014-12-15T00:46:42Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Obama isn’t descended from slaves. Classy and patronizing. He is descended from the [first slave in America.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181027/Revealed-Obamas-mother-descended-slaves-America.html) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/74 "2014-12-15T00:49:45Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > He is descended from the [first slave in America.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181027/Revealed-Obamas-mother-descended-slaves-America.html) I knew someone would bring that up. It’s an interesting theory, but unproven. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/75 "2014-12-15T01:19:25Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > How Dukakis got the nomination is beyond me. He must be the least charismatic president in history. I think you mean presidential candidate? Perhaps you’ve forgotten Bob Dole, who has truckloads of personal courage and integrity, but absolutely zero charisma. Somebody said that his support in '96 was “a mile wide, and an inch deep.” > [@Grestarian](#): > > I think this is the key to the OP. > > Carter was ridiculed up and down, largely because he had that down-south-dummy accent. On the other hand, he was a nuclear scientist so we know he wasn’t really dumb. Nevertheless, he and his speaking style were at the core of a lot of Saturday Night Live skits. [_The Pepsi Syndrome_ is a classic!] I second Carter. In many circles, he’s sort of the Platonic Ideal of “weak and ineffective.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/76 "2014-12-15T01:58:37Z")
Canada’s current prime minister, Stephen Harper. He hates native people, artists, the environment, the CBC, and other things I care about. Hardly any of my Canadian friends like him. And he’s been in power for way too long. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/77 "2014-12-15T15:27:50Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Canada’s current prime minister, Stephen Harper. He hates native people, artists, the environment, the CBC, and other things I care about. Hardly any of my Canadian friends like him. And he’s been in power for way too long. He can’t be worse than “The Crack Smoking Mayor of Toronto”, can he? I can’t nominate him, cause I ain’t a Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/78 "2014-12-15T20:29:49Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Canada’s current prime minister, Stephen Harper. He hates native people, artists, the environment, the CBC, and other things I care about. Hardly any of my Canadian friends like him. And he’s been in power for way too long. At least we can be proud that our most embarrassing leader is more of a disappointment and an annoyance than anything else. Other countries have some real doozies to choose from, I think we’re pretty lucky. Harper gets my vote too. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/79 "2014-12-18T22:00:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > 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. This is why they murdered Chis Hani. ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811/80 "2014-12-18T22:52:08Z")
Woodrow Wilson was a racist and a conniver who got the US into WWI to keep JP Morgan’s loans to Britain and France from going bad. Probably set the stage for the disaster in Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazis. Harding was a crook. Teapot dome and all that. “Silent” Cal Coolidge was, well, silent. Herbert Hoover, catches hell for the depression, but he was a competent engineer who gets worse press than he deserves. FDR, an aristocrat with a great wife, who understood what was necessary to save the system and civilization. Harry Truman, a narrow reactionary politician who did his best to reverse FDRs course. Started the Cold War along with Winston Churchill. Dwight Eisenhower, a decent man except that he didn’t expose the fraud of the Cold War, but did warn of the danger of the Military Industrial complex. JFK. Campaigned attacking Nixon from the right on the non-existent “missile gap”, the WMD lie of the day. Died too young to be hated except by the right wing. LBJ. A tragic figure, a southerner who wanted to do good, but was sunk by the albatross of the Vietnam War. Nixon, like all scoundrels, built his rep on anticommunism. Destroyed decent people along the way. Karl Rove would have loved him. Maybe did. Gerald Ford. An accidental president. Like Johnson, he was never meant to be president. One of our least offensive Presidents. His only war was the Mayaquez affair. Jimmy Carter. A man who meant well, in many ways, but restarted the arms race, and got on the wrong side of history in Iran. To his credit, he didn’t get rich off the Presidency and went home to do good things. We probably won’t see that again. Ronald Reagan. The morning in America man. Got the ball really rolling downhill for the middle class. Front man par excellence. A true ignoramus. PR mouthpiece for the most reactionary political elements in the US. Helped Saddam Hussein kill hundreds of thousands of Iranians. Bush the Elder. Probably one of the more competent presidents. Attacked the above mentioned Saddam when he thought he had the green light from the US to settle affairs with Kuwait. Bill Clinton. A real slimy politician. Only elected because Ross Perot siphoned off conservative votes. Zero principles; only calculations. Squeezed the people of Iraq to death. Fine tuned the practice of selling out his “base”. Didn’t have a pot to piss in when he became president and is now worth a cool 55 mil. Bush the younger. Defended Texas airspace during the Vietnam War. Elected by the Supreme Court after ballot fraud in Florida. Painted his war veteran opponent as a unreliable peacenik. Lied to get the US into the Iraq and Afghan wars. Barack Obama. A great chess move by the chess masters. A “Black” President, but only as deep as his paint job, to keep the Black people and the left in place. Continued and extended the national security state. Sold out health care reform activists, working people, and says nothing that will offend the power structure. Another one without a pisspot when he started out an is not worth about $7 million, but he is just getting started. There it it is, America. A roster to be proud of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-leader-of-your-country-do-you-feel-most-embarrassed-by/706811.md?page=5)