Freep this poll - don't let Clinton or Homer Simpson be declared Greatest Ever American

BBC ^ | 12 June 2003 | BBC

[Tomalak]

Who is the greatest American?

Bill Clinton
 4.54% 
Bob Dylan
 8.06% 
Benjamin Franklin
 6.28% 
Thomas Jefferson
 9.19% 
Martin Luther King Jnr
 14.06% 
Abraham Lincoln
 15.08% 
Franklin D Roosevelt
 6.47% 
Homer Simpson  20.60% 
Mr T
 8.02% 
George Washington
 7.71% 
8414 Votes Cast

[Tomalak]

I voted for Lincoln. Let's see a Republican get it.

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[CanisMajor2002]

Reagan was intentionally left off to avert a landslide.

[zlala]

I agree. They could have included the American solider IMO.

[Dan from Michigan]

I like Homer.

FDR and Klinton suck royal though. Bob Dylan? Mr T? I like some of Dylan's music and the A-Team, but c'mon.

Voted for Jefferson.

[alancarp]

I gather that this poll is really serious undertaking since Homer and Mr. T are included.

[E Rocc]

Since it's a British site, Jefferson, Franklin, or Washington would be the ideal choices. I voted for Jefferson.

-Eric

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I say we keep voting for Homer and demonstrate that online polls are stupid and the British are twits.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I wanted to vote for that annomynous Minute Man, who fired the shot heard around the world. But as to be expected from the BBC, they are too biased to include this gentleman in their poll.

[Xenalyte]

Homer Simpson is Everyman.

He goes to work every day at a job he hates, for not much money, to support his family.

He actually parents, after his own half-assed fashion. He loves his kids, and STAYS WITH THEIR MOTHER.

He goes to church on Sundays (although we can thank Marge for most of that), and doesn't do much bad.

He likes domestic beer.

I think there's a great argument to be made about Homer being an excellent American.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Jefferson is a little better than Homer but not by much. One of the most over-exalted Americans ever is Mister J. Few who actually know something about him think him so great. Forget his words and look at his actions. They are diametrically opposed to each other.

He is not considered the Father of the RAT party for nothing.

[Bommer]

I pity the fool that doesn't vote for Mr. T!

[justshutupandtakeit]

See above.

[Roughneck]

Who are the BBC anyway?

The Boorish Bafoon Company?

Who is their greatest ever employee?

[unspun]

Hmmm. I think Abraham Lincoln might have said George Washington.

[SoDak]

Definitely George Washington. This country owes everything to him.

[bedolido]

these people (British) only know Homer. Maybe we should have a poll on the greatest englishman of the past century... hmmmmmmm... Churchill, Maggie Thatcher, Mr Bean, Ringo, Peter Sellers, Chamberlain

[DannyTN]

Apparently you can vote as many times as you want.

Can somebody set up some macros and autovote this thing to death?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Jefferson blathered on endlessly about freedom. Yet, his policies undermined the protection of freedom. While president he allowed the military to decline and did not even want a navy because it led to foreign wars in his opinion.

He blundered into the Louisiana purchase (the only significant achievement of his adminstration) and did not even believe it constitutional to buy it.

His blind hatred of Hamiltonian policies and the double dealing while Washington's SecState cost him the regard of the President who no longer considered him trustworthy or a friend.

Jefferson's economic ideas were singularly idiotic and, if implemented rather than Hamilton's, would have left the United States weak, divided and subject to decline compared to advanced capitalist countries.

He was the greatest rhetoritician of the Revolutionary era but played no role in the Revolution itself or the writing of the Constitution which he would have opposed had he been in the country in 1787.

Read something of his administration's history. It is not a pretty sight.

He formed the democratic-republican party in order to fight Hamilton and used the same tactics as the modern RAT: class war rhetoric, dependence on ignorant or corrupt voters, vote fraud in the big cities, hysterical lies about the Federalists' (the ones who actually had FOUGHT for freedom) disdain for the "little guy", cut defense and allied himself with tyrants abroad for ideological reasons.

TJ would have been right at home in modern RATville.