Who was the most foolish ruler of all?

[The 1,000 Reader]

I'd have to say Sauron. From the start, he was nothing but a carbon-copy Melkor who was less potent at everything. Use of his powers is shown few and far between, and nothing of extreme strength is shown. Sauron proved to be incompetent when he wasted werewolves one by one and then struck at Luthien when Huan had dropped his guard, which is senseless due to the fact that Sauron took wolf form only to fight Huan. Rather than take the form of a troll to pry Huan off or become something to small to be bitten, Sauron becomes a snake and then surrenders. Pardon my language, but he completely became Luthien's and Huan's *****.

Afterwards, his plan with the Rings failed due to underestimating the elves' senses, and the dwarves being uncorrupted. Afterwards, he waged war and lost. Numenor defeated him again, and he was too blind to realize that Numenor was in danger of Eru's wrath, thus causing him to die again. Afterwards, he struck too soon and was defeated utterly.

Finally, he was horribly arrogant regarding the One Ring and made horrible decisions based on his paranoia of the Ring being used against him by someone such as Aragorn. In the end, he died not in a struggle or a final blaze of glory, but by a lunatic tripping during his victory dance. It was as if Eru was saying "You don't even deserve a standard death."