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The only reason Reagan is because he died recently - otherwise he might not have even been selected for the top 100 list.

MysticCow wrote:

Remember this was done by viewer voting, so you have nobody to blame but the viewership (which includes yourself).

Still more proof that a scary percentage of Americans are idiots. 

This was not a list of the greatest Americans.  This was a list of Americans who are recognizable to the unwashed masses.

JackSkellington wrote:

Lincoln - he preserved the Union

I don't know if it's such a great accomplishment to have forced people who didn't want to be a part of the US to remain remain in the union - it's kinda like forcing two people who dislike each other and have very different ideals to remain married.

Should the Poles have been forced to remain a part of Germany or Russia in 1918? Should the Ukraine and Georgia have been forced to remain a part of Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed? Should the Chechnians be forced to remain today?

JackSkellington wrote:

Kennedy - Other than having style, just what the heck did he do? The space program? The Russians beat us to it and we had to compensate and even then the Vice President was in charge of it.

Yeah, Kennedy merely gave a speech about the space program, which made him famous for somehow being the father of it or something like that. The Russians did win every step of the space race, except putting a man on the moon. Besides, while the US was busy putting a man on the moon, the Russians were busy making a orbiting space stations.

beaverfever wrote:

JackSkellington wrote:

Lincoln - he preserved the Union

I don't know if it's such a great accomplishment to have forced people who didn't want to be a part of the US to remain remain in the union - it's kinda like forcing two people who dislike each other and have very different ideals to remain married.

Should the Poles have been forced to remain a part of Germany or Russia in 1918? Should the Ukraine and Georgia have been forced to remain a part of Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed? Should the Chechnians be forced to remain today?

I wish I could remember where I saw the numbers but oddly enough, the overall generall population of the south did not want to secede. It was the wealthy land/slave owners who pushed for it. They where the ones with everything to loose. "States Rights" was part of it but  like some other wars was what it was packaged as to sell it to the populace of the south. It was a concern overall. The north did not get their people into the war to free slaves either with the exception of the abolitionists who where fewer in number. Many Union soldiers did not want to be fighting for slaves.

JackSkellington wrote:

Kennedy - Other than having style, just what the heck did he do? The space program? The Russians beat us to it and we had to compensate and even then the Vice President was in charge of it.

Yeah, Kennedy merely gave a speech about the space program, which made him famous for somehow being the father of it or something like that. The Russians did win every step of the space race, except putting a man on the moon. Besides, while the US was busy putting a man on the moon, the Russians were busy making a orbiting space stations.

But when it comes down to it, the world remembers the Moon landing more than the Russians space program. Ours was more about status whereas the Russians was about conquest. Still, given the lead time they had and how fast we got ours together and to the moon, we still beat the pants off them.

JackSkellington wrote:

Still, given the lead time they had and how fast we got ours together and to the moon, we still beat the pants off them.

There's a word for it, when people believe propoganda... but regardless, even those who believe the US won the space race by going to the moon typically don't realise that time has proven that the future of space exploration was (is) orbiting space stations, and not bases on the moon.

beaverfever wrote:

JackSkellington wrote:

Still, given the lead time they had and how fast we got ours together and to the moon, we still beat the pants off them.

There's a word for it, when people believe propoganda... but regardless, even those who believe the US won the space race by going to the moon typically don't realise that time has proven that the future of space exploration was (is) orbiting space stations, and not bases on the moon.

Symantics essentially.

Aditionally, while not surprised to see MLK on the list, I was surpised Frederick Douglas didn't place higher. People have so little knowledge of their own histrory it's pathetic.