The Greatest American

by Conscious* » Sun Jul 03, 2005 11:03 pm

http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican

For those of you who knew about the show...Ronald Reagon won...I'll say he should be in the top 15, but i don't see how anyone could beat Franklin. I take into account all the reasons for why someone could be considered the greatest american...and i come up with these categories....

Politics
Money
Rags to Riches
War Hero
Celebrity
Looks and Popularity
Inovations and Inventions
Discovery
Athleticism
Music

Now i can argue for all but the last two that Ben Franklin could be a part of....

Politics- Gave his life to making the voyage to France for help in the Revolutionart War.
Attended the Constitutional Conventions and greatly influenced most of it. Signed the Declaration of Independence. Ambassador to France. Unarguably a 2nd or 3rd president if it wasn't his age.

Money- A flourished businessman who mastered printing, and even published his own Almanac which still is around today (Poor Richards), one of the classiest dressed men in America in the 1700s.

Rags to Riches- Growing up in the city of Philadelphia dirt poor, Franklin made himself into one of the richest people in early america without direct help from anyone.

War Hero- Although he didn't fight, without Franklin...the Revolutionary War may very well not have been won, funding and the fact that he dragged France into the war alone.

Celebrity- One of Americas first celebrities, he had the girls and the fashion...in France he showed up with a unique hat that soon everyone in France wanted to buy, to be like Ben...probally one of the first Celebrites to have Worldwide influence.

Looks and Popularity- Everyone knew Ben Franklin, one of the most popular people in the entire world in the late 1700s, whether it be for his discoveries, inventions or simply his stature as a Revolutionary.

Innovation and Invention- Patenting inventions created including Bifocles, and then on to writing Poor Richard;s Almanac, he was a leader in innovention with new things liek a Lightning Rod.

Discovery- He discovered electricity..and soon created the tale of the Kite and Key experiment.

Im not exactly sure how he didn't win..most people voted for Reagon seeing that he just recently passed away...but i can name at least three who i would immeaditly put before him... Franklin of course...George Washington (could've been king, decided to only take two terms, war leader, great individual), FDR (pushed the United States through the biggest conflict ever to occur in the world, and push America to being a Superpower while crushing Fascism in the world, also building industry and pulling America out of Depression. Rant off...

by **cavalierlwt** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 6:59 pm

Lincoln would definitely come before Reagan. Nothing against Ronnie, but quite a few I would put ahead of him. Einstein and Edison.
Good point on George Washington. They don't point out much how our democracy was really in one man's hands for a little while. What are the odds that the first man to be president really didn't want the job and wasn't intoxicated/corrupted by it's power.

by Conscious* » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:47 pm

Lincoln of course would be ahead of him to, i also forgot to mention two other important things about Franklin....

1) When he retired from business at 42, and started inventing, he didn't patent anything therefore he could make his items available to all the average people in the colonies. His invention of the lightning rod could have made him a lot of money he didnt need, and instead he didn't patent it and it became a popular fixture on every building in the colonies.

2) To promote his newspaper, which he himself founded which was the NY Times of its day (the Pennsylvania Gazette) he created the worlds first modern postal service...which was actually faster then the postal service we have today!

by **JimmyTango** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:45 am

Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette was the first national paper.

He also opened the first public library and first non-religious college.

I do not see how Reagon beat out so many more deserving.

by **deathBOB** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:39 am

Reagan? huh?

by **Trash Can** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:24 pm

Originally posted by JimmyTango
I do not see how Reagon beat out so many more deserving.

Two things I can identify:
1) There is a bias with some people to vote for people that lived during their lifetimes. Think of it like this: Ronald Reagan was in the news every day for eight years. Practically the only time George Washington (or whoever) was ever discusssed was in history class.

2) The format of the voting. If I recall correctly, the field was narrowed down to five, then the winner was picked from those five. The people that voted for the old-timers split their vote among the different candidates. In other words, where Franklin or Washington would have beat Reagan head-to-head, they both lose to Reagan in a final five contest.

by **LordShard** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:43 pm

Yes, I mean come on. George Washington was a dissidant.

Despite tea prices being at an all time low even AFTER taxes they decided to not drink it, and drink coffe which wasn't taxed but 3 or 4 times more expensive.

Oh yeah, nice reason to rebel. :lol:

by **Trash Can** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:55 pm

Originally posted by LordShard
Yes, I mean come on. George Washington was a dissidant.
Despite tea prices being at an all time low even AFTER taxes they decided to not drink it, and drink coffe which wasn't taxed but 3 or 4 times more expensive. Oh yeah, nice reason to rebel.

The reason for the Boston tea Party was because the English tea company did not have to pay taxes, but American companies and merchants did. And what in the he!! does that have to do with George Washington??

by **bf_wonka** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:03 pm

polls like this show how uneducated and retarded most americans are about their own history.

I'd rate it Washington, then lincoln, then FDR. There is not one modern day president that could or should pop the top 10.

by **SavageParrot** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:37 pm

Originally posted by Trash Can
The reason for the Boston tea Party was because the English tea company did not have to pay taxes, but American companies and merchants did. And what in the he!! does that have to do with George Washington??

Er yes they did. You had a very uncommon and unfair position in the empire in that you did not pay taxes. An english tea company would definatley have paid taxes in England when the returned home.

I vote for Benedict Arnold by the way

by **LordShard** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:39 pm

Originally posted by Trash Can
The reason for the Boston tea Party was because the English tea company did not have to pay taxes, but American companies and merchants did. And what in the he!! does that have to do with George Washington??

I have no idea. I was just stating a point.

by **Trash Can** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:44 pm

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/teaparty/bostonxx.htm

Er, no they didn't. By taxes, I mean "sales" tax. I have no idea what the status of income taxes were back in those days.

Stop posting your English propaganda in here, dammit! The war is over, and you lost!!

by **FarginMofo** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:49 pm

Just look at some of the nominees on the list i.e. Ellen Degenerate and Tom "I know Psychology" Cruise among others. This should explain why Reagan is #1. He doesn't even break the top 20 on my list.

Hillary Clinton a nominee? What a farce.

by **SavageParrot** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:52 pm

Why the fuck wouldd they pay sales tax in america when they paid full tax on their profits in the uk? You made it sound like they were paying no tax which is bollocks

by **Trash Can** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:55 pm

Bollocks???? Watch the language!!

LOL - I did mean income tax, sorry.

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