POLL: Greatest American Top 5 Finals

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I said Abe both times -- I always thought he was a stud.

I'm not familiar with one person on the poll:

Geroge Washington? Was he some French relative of the legendary George Washington? Or did he work in a shed at the back, which eventually became a garage, and the use of his name for this popular building qualifies him for greatness? Please fill me in!

And for the record, I like Reagan.

 

Although I did not follow the show (the hostMatt Lauer is a complete idiot) I always would have voted for BF. Statesman, diplomat, scientist, writer, publisher, and inventor. But the concept was lame to start: Hilliary Clinton in the top 100, who just missed, Charles Manson? Oprah in the top 10, why because she is rich and hypes herself to middle aged housewives to keep herself on top of the ratings?
All in all, Reagon was a good choice for top 5. Yeah he had his problems, but look where America was when he started and when he finished. Carter had the world looking down on us. Iran had us by the balls. Interest rates on mortgages were in the 20% range, the $ was worth squat and unemployment was rampant. Worldwide, communism was spreading like wildfire. Reagon (20CHR) led us to today's super economy, broke the Soviets back and still had time to ride his horse.

 

I'm the one who voted for Reagan.

I can defend the choice if anyone is silly enough to argue with me.

 

@ General Ghoul: Who the hell is "Reagon"?

Though I agree with the rest of it all, including anything that points out what an absolutely overrated piece of ka ka Oprah is. I admire her ability to make $, but talent and intelligence? She's got nothing there.

 

Can someone remind me exactly what Martin Luther King did. I know he was some sort of human rights activist and that he had a dream and he was shot, but what did he actually do?

Apologies in advance for not being fully up with the play on all aspects of American history.

 

Tsk Tsk, Harbourboy. King's dream was for a colour blind USA, as opposed to one that had separate bussing systems, school systems, etc. He was a major player (some would say leader) in the Civil Rights Movement that staged sit ins (black people sitting down in "white only" diners), protests and similar activities.

He was a believer in peaceful resistance and demonstration, which is why some of his contemporaries (like Malcolm X) weren't too fond of him. He was also was assassinated, which made him a martyr (good for the movement, bad for him.)

 

Don't "tsk tsk" me. I bet I know more about American history than you know about New Zealand history. At least I'm showing an interest in learning more about you foreigners.

So, to answer my question, he arranged protests and sit-ins and made speeches? And the laws were changed as a result?

 

Harbourboy, I know you know more about USA history than I do about New Zealand history because I know almost nothing.

MLK was a charismatic person who gave great speeches and was unfortunately shot. He was part of the civil rights movement but by no means the whole of it. A lot of people contributed to the laws being changed and most of them will never appear in history books except as part of a group.

 

What made him so different from all the others then? Was it because he was shot? Why does he get a whole holiday named after him?

 

Well, you should. Burr was a charismatic, brilliant lawyer and politician, who was as feared in the courtroom as he was in the halls of government. Both as a lawyer, and later as a defendent, he was just about unbeatable. He bested both Hamilton and Jefferson in the courtroom, but decidely not in the presidency in Jefferson's case.

 

It was his dream that made him truly great. He sold his dream like nobody else before him. Had he run for President in the 1970's, I think he'd have won by a huge margin...

 

But surely there were many many people who opposed his dream? Otherwise, it wouldn't have been such big achievement if it had been easy. So if many people opposed his dream, how could he win an election by a huge margin?

 

I think Gnarfflinger is exaggerating. I doubt he would have won by even a small margin. Racial prejudice was very strong here in the 60 & 70's which is why there was such a fight against it.

Not meaning to detract from MLK's accomplishments I do think that being killed made him a symbol and when it was decided to have a 'black' national day he was picked. My natural cynicism thinks that his birthday was probably the least offensive of whatever was available.

 

Wow! I'm just like him!

Chandos, you forgot to say he was a hell of a shot too! Just kidding....Sorry to any decendants of Alexander Hamilton.

 

Actually, I think that the African American Vote would go his way, and I also think enough of the Northern Whites would have supported him to put him over the top.

 

Sorry, Gnarfflinger, I was around then. Not all blacks could vote. Northern whites were prejudiced with a 'I'm not prejudiced but..... attitude. Blacks in the North couldn't get decent jobs unless it was a Black owned business. The word black was not the word used to describe what are now called blacks.

There is a slim possibility that I am wrong but we will never know which of us is right.

 

Nice way to be patronizing from the very start.

But from the beginning, I will just have a simple question(followed by a couple of extra ones, off course):

What did Reagan do that was soooo damn good? Also, as a reminder, he was not responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev was. And even if he was, how is that greater than what Washington, Luther King, Lincoln, Kennedy, and all the other great men did?

To be honest, I would not even place him in my top fifteen, probably not in my top twenty ethier.

 

I'm sure HS can defend his choice, because there is a lot of good to say about Reagan, while at the same time there was a lot that went wrong with his presidency.

But I'll give HS a start here, although I agee, and would not have voted for Reagan as one of the greatest Americans. The Reagan "mystique" is built on the notion that he shared the middle class American "values," well, with the middle class. He was one of them by nature. Unlike the quasi-aristocrat who occupies the White House now, Reagan came from very humble beginnings and became an entirely self-made man. In other words he lived, and was living proof, of the American dream.

The same could have been said of Clinton, but to a lesser extent. The reason is that Reagan never stopped indentifying with the middle class from which he came; Clinton came to be indentified with more progressive ideals. Some of these ideals the middle class shared, some they did not. But Clinton's popularity remained fairly strong among a lot of the middle class, which explains why conservatives could not force him out of office. But again, Clinton and Reagan were self-made men, living the American dream.

Despite, the Reagan administration's lies about the Iran-Contra scandal, there was always a well-deserved genuineness about Reagan. He was one of the middle-class, and the way he saw it, he was fighting their battles, even if that battle was sometimes directed against their own government.

Of course, today that would be heresy. We all know now that anyone who dares to speak out against the government is a traitor. Times have changed.

[ July 02, 2005, 00:33: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Yes, I know Reagan did a lot of good for America(And America only, IMO), but I don't see what qualifies him as being the greatest American of all time.

 

I didn't vote for the simple reason that I don't think anyone listed was/is/will be the 'greatest American'.

My question is (and forgive me for not knowing): When did George Washington and Benjamin Franklin become Americans? Granted, they helped form the nation, but did they just 'get' that status because they created the country? I'm pretty sure Albert Einstein got his citizenship papers at some point.

@all - Reagan is great because he worked for WHO radio sports Des Moines, Iowa. Go Hawkeyes!