The Greatest American

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donovan

Joined
Oct 4, 1998
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The Discovery Channel is hosting a program picking the "Greatest American" based on viewer voting. They've got it narrowed down from 100 (some interesting votes there) :rolleyes: to 25 and will get to 5 on Sunday. I guess this is copying a similar show done in the UK that wound up with Churchhill as the greatest Brit. Personally, I've got to go with Washington or Jefferson with a slight nod going to Jefferson. I'd be intersted in others opinions as well, including those non-US forumites. The list is here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/greatestamerican/greatestamerican.html

Jack
 
Interesting...lots of good choices. I'm not sure who I'd pick for greatest American but my top five would probably be Lance Armstrong, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.

They have all made important contributions to the American way of life either directly or indirectly and any one of them would represent America well. If any of these five win I'll be happy.
 
I'd say it's a toss up between John Stuart Mill and John Locke, whose concepts of private property and etc. are what lead to the ideas of the founding fathers.

Oh wait, do they have to be born and or live in the US. I could go with Franklin washington or jefferson.

Lance Armstrong, who cares about what he did? Billy Graham?
 
They've suggested Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and Muhammad Ali as among the top 25 Americans?????

And you expect me to take this question seriously?

How about Charlie Brown?



From their list:

Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
FDR (an American so great that his initials are all we need)
Araham Lincoln
Albert Einstein
 
DaveH said:
I'd say it's a toss up between John Stuart Mill and John Locke, whose concepts of private property and etc. are what lead to the ideas of the founding fathers.

Oh wait, do they have to be born and or live in the US. I could go with Franklin washington or jefferson.

Lance Armstrong, who cares about what he did? Billy Graham?
Click to expand...
I do. :cool:
 
Gollnick said:
They've suggested Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and Muhammad Ali as among the top 25 Americans?????

And you expect me to take this question seriously?
Click to expand...

Those aren't suggestions they are the current vote getters. Someone had to make up the list of 25 and proportionally, obviously, Elvis is a low percentage of the votes, but he only had to beat out Ellen Degeneres and the others ranked 26-100 to make the cut. I doubt he makes the top 5. Discovery was smart to narrow down the field in successive rounds to make the voting more relevant. Additionally, on Sundays show they will have groups of individuals supporting each of the top 5 in a debate style format.

Jack
 
Benjamin Franklin, hands down.

Alarming amount of modern celebrities in the top 100, Ellen DeGeneris, Tom Cruise, Dr. Phil and Oprah Winfry? If you want to include people from "pop culture" you would do better with the likes of Jonny Carson, Frank Zappa, Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx. But they should not supplant people like Patton, Macarthur, Robrt E. Lee, Will Rodgers, John Adams, Alexander Graham Bell, or John Steinbeck.
 
If you want to include people from popular culture, how about George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Glenn Miller, Bill Monroe, Brian Williams, Scot Joplin, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Mel Brooks even?


But Tom Cruise, Dr. Phil and Oprah Winfry? No. Please, no.
 
In addition to Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Washington from the founding period and Lincoln and FDR as other politicos, we have some great people not mentioned yet.

In no particular order of importance:
Sam Clemens
Emily Dickensen
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Robert Frost
Henry David Thoreau
Carl Sandberg
Scot Joplin
John Steinbeck
James Michener
Bob Dylan
Woody Guthry
Martin Luther King
Thomas Paine
 
Pathetic. At least a 1/3 of the top 25 shouldn't be there. Muhamid Ali.. :barf:
Most of those cookie cutter choices couldn't even be explained by the chooser.
 
The Greatest American is the US soldier. Hands down. He fights and sometimes dies for what we have today. From the Revolutionary War up until today's current conflict the American soldier has been the backbone of this country yet I don't see him/her on that list.
 
my top 5 choices are

1.Franklin Delano Roosevelt
2.Thomas Jefferson
3.Benjamin Franklin
4.George Washington
5.Martin Luther King Jr

in that order.
 
1. Lincoln
2. FDR

Civil War, Depression, WWII, led us through our darkest times.

3. Martin Luther King, greatest American of the modern era. Dedicated to peace, justice and equality. Nobel Peace Prize winner

4. William Penn, lived many years with Native Americans in peace. Model of a humanitarian.

5. Learned Hand, probably the greatest jurist never to serve on the Supreme Court.
 
Gollnick said:
If you want to include people from popular culture, how about George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Glenn Miller, Bill Monroe, Brian Williams, Scot Joplin, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Mel Brooks even?


But Tom Cruise, Dr. Phil and Oprah Winfry? No. Please, no.
Click to expand...


What about James Randi? Nobody ever gives the Amazing Randi the credit he deserves...
 
shgeo said:
Sam Clemens
Click to expand...

I'd bet that most people wouldn't recognize him without his nom de plume, Mark Twain.

My vote would be a toss up between Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.
 
I'm suprised by all the peole chosing FDR and Abe. They would certainly rank high on my list of people who should have read the Constitution. But would not apear on my list of greats.

My top five
1 Franklin
2 Washington
3 Jefferson
4 Reagan
5 Edison
 
Hi All-
Active Verb said:
"...Martin Luther King, greatest American of the modern era. Dedicated to peace, justice and equality. Nobel Peace Prize winner..."
Click to expand...
Not to mention noted plagiarist. His stealing of other academic works should have immediately struck him from the competition. My money is on one of the Founding Fathers getting the nod.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
The list wasn't compiled by the TV show. It was compiled by it's listeners. The problem with it that is that currently living people are way too predominant in the list. My vote goes to George Washington. Without his leadership during the Revolutionary War, the United States wouldn't have happened. So all other great Americans are Americans thanks to George Washington. Another great General who didn't make the list was Dwight Eisenhower. He won WWII (with a lot of help, of course) and that is a fairly significant accomplishment. General U.S. Grant was another great American general and so was Douglas MacArthur. Admiral Chester Nimitz is another and the list goes on. I guess military leaders weren't so popular with the people who voted to get to the top 25.
 
However, he is hardly unique on the list of many people listed here for character flaws. After all what is plagiarism next to owning slaves?

In addition, though guilty of plagiarism, I think on balance King's contributions to the civil rights movement and promoting non-violent protest should secure his place on my list at least as among the greatest.
 
I am not a US citizen. I do not think that popular vote will get the greatest.

I guess I would vote for Benjamin Franklin, though I wish he hadn't thought of daylight saving.

Luis
 
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