The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/...516261,00.html

ill save you time, its Ronald Reagan.

personally, im just going to try and be impassive whenever doing anything in connection with the US from now on. However many chances i give them they keep ****ing up, so pretending they don't exist is probably the easiest way to get along.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

I love it how Oprah Winfrey is a place higher than FDR.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Ronald Reagan is a fairly obvious choice. Recently died, charismatic leader that is thought to have saved America from Communism.

Things like this happen all the time, not just in America.

I'd be far more worried about Oprah Winfrey in the top 10.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Oh, and since when was Einstein American?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Voters' top 20

1 Ronald Reagan
2 Abraham Lincoln
3 Martin Luther King Jr
4 George Washington
5 Benjamin Franklin
6 George W Bush
7 Bill Clinton
8 Elvis Presley
9 Oprah Winfrey
10 Franklin D Roosevelt
11 Billy Graham
12 Thomas Jefferson
13 Walt Disney
14 Albert Einstein
15 Thomas Alva Edison
16 John F Kennedy
17 Bob Hope
18 Bill Gates
19 Eleanor Roosevelt
20 Lance Armstrong

Is this really such a suprise? (even if it is a great injustice). Look at Britain's top 10.

1. Churchill
2. Brunel
3. Diana
4. Darwin
5. Shakespeare
6. Newton
7. Lennon
8. Elizabeth I
9. Nelson
10. Cromwell

Considering that only 6 of those 10 were alive while America has existed, that means that 1/3rds of our 'Great Britains' are overrated (Princess Diana and John Lennon). That's around the same number as the American list.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

You're the conductor on the nonsense train.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Bob Hope came in at 17?! :banana:

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Also, do you suppose that all those Americans who voted for Einstein knew that he was a commited Socialist and Pacifist?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

every single person who voted for billy graham should be rounded up and shot

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Care to explain how I got this job?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

How the hell could you vote for a lying two faced criminal who only managed to stay in office because the democrats didnt really want to be seen to be inditing presidents every couple of years.


Has everyone forgotten about the Iran Contra scandel? What about the various other **** ups during his administration. THeres so many other Americna leaders who were worthy of that spot. Im genuinely amazed that Reagan got numero uno.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

What, did you think the bit I quoted made sense?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Noam Chomsky's not very good at being an american, though :(

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Americans are Pacifists too....

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Yes he is. And he's far more American than Einstein.

edit: Nevermind. I missed the point.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Reagan deserves to be high on the list, but certainly not #1.

The greatest American is either Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, and anyone who claims otherwise is objectively wrong.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

He was given American citizenship sometime before he died. I guess that's enough for them.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

holy crap i am surprised that homer simpson did not have 99% of the votes

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

What a bunch of hogwash, Ronald Reagan. ARGH. I would say things but I'm at work and my transmissions are monitored. (I've turned avatars off because mr FLAVIUS THANKS) Anywho, 'greatest'? Greatest at what? Running fast? Holding your breath the longest under water? Greatest charming tv personality? It's so ambigious as to be meaningless. Top 20 lists are the vulgar concoctions of silly celeb minded fools. Top 20 inventions, top 20 songs of all time, top movies of the century. OMG ENOUGH. You look those established lists and you always find you disagree with them don't you? Well so does everyone else... I got your top 10 reasons to stop top 10 lists:

1) They're dumb.
2) They're dumb.
3) They're dumb.
4)...

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

1. Anna Khornakova (or however it's spelled)
2. Maria Shirapova

I don't care if they were born here.
I don't care if they are citizens.
I would vote for them for anything.

Unless it should turn out that they are socialist or pacifist.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

They are SOVIET SCUM

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

why was cromwell #10?


He doesn't deserve to be in the top 10, if hes allowed in i demand nixon (oh you forget nixon, don't you forget nixon, he'll be back and his enemies will vanquish before him) be one place ahead.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

I am not a crook.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Why? Reagan was probably the best president of the 20th century, so a high place is merited. I'm not sure why you'd want to include Nixon.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Was Diana really in the top10 Brits?
________
Toys Cams

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Stop trying to incite riots on GD. You can't possibly be serious. Best at what? What could possibly be your standard by which you make this measurement?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Malcom X not being there.... instead it's MLK Jr.

Hmmm......

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Promoting domestic growth, and the protection of American rights. In terms of foreign affairs, his stance on the socviet union was commendable but there were a few negative things as well (lol iran-contra). He wasnt perfect, but he was lot better than most.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Having recieved this disturbing bit of news and a neg rep, I withdraw my vote for Anna and Maria. I am now voting for Tom Clancy and Orson Wells.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Orson Welles Got Fat

Noone Likes A Fatty

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Unless you're an American....

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Please don't tell my wife or I'm out on my ear.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

reagan was shit.

but.

if you are an american republican, who are you supposed to claim was a great modern american?

nixon?
ford?
1-term bush senior?
eisenhower, the federal spending maestro?
hoover?
bush 'mistar socialism' jr?

You look at your list. And you discover Reagan must have been the greatest man ever. And that's your propaganda.

Now, normally when REpublicans start out their pro-Reagan circle jerk action, Dems point to the actual facts about his administration and people say "oh yeah, he WAS a douchebag" and quit paying attention.

but for quite a while, reagan has been either A) dying of Alzheimers
or
B) recently died of Alzheimers

making it very difficult for dems to piss on his memory.

So for fivish years, we've had nothing but the most pro-reagan possible stuff in the media. give it a few years, and republicans will try to put him on a coin, and dems will jump on him.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

By this measure are you including good things that happened under his Presidency, or are you trying to measure the man himself? I'm not really that interested in such things but i thought it was widely considered that Reagan himself wasn't too bright* and while many things might have happened that you personally consider good it was unlikely he engineered much/any of it.

* = This may be Democrat propaganda, I don't really know or care.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

[quote=Dante Hicks]By this measure are you including good things that happened under his Presidency, or are you trying to measure the man himself? QUOTE]
The things his administration was responsible for. I think most world leaders are figureheads, so there's not much point in talking about the people themselves.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

I don't see how this could have been a statistically valid sampling of public opinion. Hence, this doesn't strike me as particularly significant (or newsworthy, for that matter).

FWIW, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln would all be ahead of Reagan on my list.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

I went to college in Sacramento when Regan was governor of California. When I found out he was about to move to another address other than the Governor's mansion, a friend of mine and I walked over in the middle of the night and pissed on his lawn (to be).

While putting myself through college and law school, I was a letter carrier. On Saturdays it was my job to sort and deliver the mail at the Federal Building in Sacramento. Every week a few letters would come to the Federal Building instead of the State Capitol for Governor Ronald Regan. I unfailingly marked them "return to sender---addressee unknown."

Now I am and American Republican. Life is strange.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rr40.html

You're 50 to 60? :shocker:

Cool though, tbh. So what do you think of all the technological changes that have happened in your life time? What's the point to life? What do you think about young kids these days? Was going the law route worth it or would you have gone someother way if you could start again? Don't you get tired of being called a 'baby boomer?'

Also don't worry about negreps. (They happen). You'll see that not all reps are equal and that most of your negreps will only take 5-10 points from your total score while your pos reps will add sometimes hundreds of points each!

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

I am flabergasted (58).

They are mind boggeling. That I am sitting here communicating (at least attempting to communicate) with people thousand of miles away and don't have to pay long distance is great. Watched television when man landed on the moon. Telephones that you cary with you in your pocket. Hell, telephones with buttons instead of rotary dials. However, as you have pointed out on a couple of occasions, I struggle with new stuff. I want to know it but I really don't want to have to go through learning it. Same way I feel about pllaying the piano.

I haven't noticed one. I think if you spend too much time worrying about the point to life you spend too little time enjoying life.

[quote=s|k] What do you think about young kids these days?
I like young people. They have different points of view on most things than I do and that is always fun. I feel sad for young people sometimes because when I was growing up all we had to worry about was getting killed by the Russians or the Chinees. Now kids have to worry about getting killed by their school mates.

I have enjoyed my carreer. Met my wife while doing a fraud case. She was the fraud investigator assigned to the case. I fell into the whole going to law school thing because I wanted to put off making a decision with what to do with my life for a few more years. It turned out that I had a talent for it and found the whole thing interesting (being an attorney not going to law school. I once considered trying to become a judge but that would have meant sitting around listening to people like Yahwe all day long. You do the math.

I have reached an age where I am just happy when people acknowledge that I exist.

[quote=s|k}Also don't worry about negreps. (They happen). You'll see that not all reps are equal and that most of your negreps will only take 5-10 points from your total score while your pos reps will add sometimes hundreds of points each![/QUOTE]
I don't worry. The little red blobs along with the little green blobs seems so Christmassy. I do admit that I like the posreps though. Especially if it is when I have tried to be witty.

You have to be careful about asking questions of older people. We often don't know quite when to stop once we get started. Why I remember the time.........err, well, you get the point.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

[quote=dda]I am flabergasted (58).


They are mind boggeling. That I am sitting here communicating (at least attempting to communicate) with people thousand of miles away and don't have to pay long distance is great. Watched television when man landed on the moon. Telephones that you cary with you in your pocket. Hell, telephones with buttons instead of rotary dials. However, as you have pointed out on a couple of occasions, I struggle with new stuff. I want to know it but I really don't want to have to go through learning it. Same way I feel about pllaying the piano.


I haven't noticed one. I think if you spend too much time worrying about the point to life you spend too little time enjoying life.

You're cool in my book. :up: Please tell all you want, I'm interested. You being here actually gives me hope for GD's future. Thanks for contributing! :banana:

By the way use of the banana will autmatically result in several neg reps, I advise using it sparingly.

Also, I just noticed that you can give a reason for editing a post by looking at yours, something I didn't even know! See you figured out a tech thing I couldn't and I do some techy stuff now and then for a hobby.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Damn, bro.. how old are you?

I'm mostly republican, with some democratic traits, and I'm in the US Navy. Nothing can be stranger than that.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

He said he's 58. Read on, squidly! :D (I'm a former jarhead </cough>)

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Well yeah - that's probably true in the context of purely President vs President (which I concede your post about 'best president of 20th Century' obviously meant) but it seems strange to say Reagan is that 'great' because he was part of a team which achieved various things you liked. Especially if you're comparing to people like Jefferson, Franklin, Einstein, Washington and various other Americans who had individual greatness on one level or another.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Hulk Hogan

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Dr. Phil

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

If only the internet was real time and updates every minute without hitting a refresh tab then I would've read that :) That's outstanding though, jarhead. I'm always cool with the green side. Besides, we work for the same boss heh.

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Americans :rolleyes:

They'll try and claim anything (First man on the moon etc)

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Jakiri - didn't have time to reply to your post way up in the thread...it turns out that what I was trying to say was just very very badly expressed. But upon closer inspection, it also suffered from being a load of balls :(

I'll make my own top 10 Americans:

1) Thomas Jefferson
2) George Washington
3) Thomas Edison
4) Franklin D Roosevelt
5) Abraham Lincoln
6) Benjamin Franklin
7) Martin Luther King Jr.
8) Robert E .Lee
9) Elvis Presley
10) Bill Gates

Other candidates for the top 10 included Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Walt Disney among those I've seen suggestions from (i.e. the American top 20).

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

Is this an anti-cromwell or pro-cromwell sentiment?

Re: The greatest american, as voted by, americans
 

on balance anti but only because i was led to believe he was a bit of a puritanical bastard (may be mistaken)

anyway Sylvia Pankhurst would be my #1 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

only because i saw that programme by that 'comedian' man whos name i can't quite ever recall.

Im easily led.