That's the gist of it, imo. With great power comes great responsibility. And Dumbledore failed miserably whenever it was up to him to live up to that responsibility.

I'm not trying to argue that Voldemort was super-duper invincible. He's a bit of a disappointment as far as my expectations for evil over-lord villains go. Fact is: Voldemort could be defeated by a bunch of mediocre kids (I'm including Hermione, because for all her brain-power, she's just too narrow-minded to be above mediocre). So why was it left to a bunch of mediocre kids in the first place? Because Dumbledore never had the guts to address the threat Voldemort and his supporters posed in a significant manner - for decades! Dumbledore was basically a coward.

Voldemort didn't beat Dumbledore in the conventional sense. He won because Dumbledore didn't really fight! The miraculous defeat of Voldemort by his amazing amount of stupidity and a number of dei-ex-machina cannot be attributed to the bloody old coward, imo. That was sheer dumb luck.

 

That's just an altruist's perspective. Dumbledore having the power doesn't instantly make him everyone else's keeper. He's just powerful and people look up to him for it. That doesn't mean that he's instantly responsible. We don't see him signing a contract that makes him promise to keep everyone safe.

Exactly. Do you think Dumbledore could be bested by a bunch of mediocre kids?

It was left to a bunch of mediocre kids cause he made the mistake of wearing Marvolo's ring. If not for that moment of weakness, Dumbledore would still be sitting behind the headmaster's table eating lemon drops. Besides, Harry was the one who was meant to defeat Voldemort so it would be fitting to let Harry decide who would help him, in this case, he chose two other brats to help him.

Wasn't searching for the horcruxes a way of fighting him? If Dumbledore hadn't gotten to the bottom of that horcrux deal, nobody would have known how to stop Voldemort. In a sense, he did fight, not inside the box but outside of it, doing the subtle work while making other people dirty their hands.

That wasn't sheer dumb luck. That was JKR.

 

Agreed.

 

Let's leave aside the vagueness on who was smarter and/or more stupid. Looking from purely point of view of magical skills, the duel at the ministry was enough to tell who was more skilled. Let us take it one by one

1. Tom has no compulsions in using any sort of magic, while Dumbledore refrains from them

2. For the argument that Dumbledore had the elder wand, one must remember that he dueled Grindlewald when the latter had the said wand and still ended on top, so his skills were not dependent on the elder wand

3. He basically kicked Tom Riddle's scaly ass in the ministry

Dumbledore is way better than Tom, no wonder he was shit scared of the old man

 

They both fall before the majesty of Vernon Dursley.

 

Or Gilderoy Lockhart

 

Dumbledore's not a fool, although he did rather sculpt Harry into the perfect hero. Voldemort, on the other hand, inspires fear. As soon as his followers see a chance to survive without him, they'll take it. With Dumbledore, you could actually die for a cause or as a sacrifice rather than as an idiot with nothing better to do.

Then let's add on the fact that Dumbledore was holding back from Voldemort when he dueled him in the Ministry because of his faith in the prophecy: he knew Harry would be the one to defeat him, so why should he himself try? All he wanted then was to get Harry out of there alive. Voldemort threw everything he had and still couldn't best him, so what does that tell you?

Grindlewald was defeated by Dumbledore but was Dumbledore's friend. Since we have no direct confrontations with which to compare Grindlewald to Voldemort, we just have to assume that they're both about equal power-wise. Sanity-wise, Voldemort just lost it.