Except for Franklin. I still want the hour or so back from my life that I spent reading his Autobiography in American Lit in college. What an insufferable ass.

Can't say as I'd put Paine anywhere near that list, nor Einstein. Patton can go too. My very conservative gf who fought on the ground in Europe, not under Patton, said most of the troops couldn't stand Patton, that he was viewed as costing a lot of American boys' lives to satsify his ego.

Washington and Lincoln: period.

Over all, a very good list, though I'm a little surprised Booker T. Washington failed to get a single vote.

My list would be close to theirs, except I wouldn't put Reagan at #1, it's probably too early to put George W. on a "greatest ever" list, and I'd like to include a pioneer in mass-media (possibly Hearst) or maybe a TV figure like Lee DeForest. And maybe Black Jack Pershing isn't as an important figure as the World War II generals, but I like him anyway.

Actually, I voted for Booker T.

Wow, I didn't even notice you as one of the participants! Good call on Booker T - he must not have gotten enough votes to make the "honorable mention" list.

Out of curiosity, who else did you vote for, if you don't mind telling?

In a thousand years, it will be Washington and Lincoln. Even Jefferson was derivitive and will be thought of today as we think of the better- known Roman poets.

We've contributed two men for the ages, not bad for such a short run so far.

I'm not surprised everyone forgot Nikola Tesla. And what about J.D. Watson of Watson & Crick?

I didn't save it, but off the top of my head, I think it was:

John Winthrop

Jonathan Edwards

Ben Franklin

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Alexander Hamilton

James Madison

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Herman Melville

Alexis de Tocqueville

Abraham Lincoln

U.S. Grant

Thomas Alva Edison

Booker T. Washington

Mark Twain

Black Jack Pershing

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ronald Reagan

George W. Bush

My list would include Edwards, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Lincoln, Reagan, W., Ruth, Dimaggio, Mantle, Munson, Mattingly, Jeter, Willis Reed, Bernard King, Patrick Ewing, Phil Simms, and Lawrence Taylor, and maybe Saul Bellow.

I'd add a couple of more toward that list, though they may be somewhat obscure:

Thomas Clark Durant: Chief Executive of Union Pacific RR at the time the railroad met the Central Pacific at Promontory. His actions help geographically unify a nation.

John Pierpoint Morgan: The father of modern finance, and the architect of the economy of today.

A thousand years from now the only American of the 20th Century who will be remembered by most people will be Neil Armstrong, and even then only because of the cities named after him. (And not all of them will speak English, either. cf. Cristobal Colon.)

The leftist version is more interesting. W.T. Sherman deserves an honorable mention. Tom Paine was a useful propagandist, nothing more.

Lawrence Taylor?

Might as well pick T.O.

Comedians thousands of years from now will still tell Bill Clinton jokes.

Jim in Chicago: "Patton can go too. My very conservative gf who fought on the ground in Europe, not under Patton, said most of the troops couldn't stand Patton, that he was viewed as costing a lot of American boys' lives to satsify his ego."

The "boys" and your "gf" are completely wrong. Patton was a showboater and a martinet but his tactics of bypassing strongpoints and using air power to protect flanks saved lives. Compare Third Army casualty rates with any other army in Europe. Patton did not waste lives at all.

The soldiers loved McLellan--he kept them safe.

Neil Armstrong? How many over 40 or so ever even heard of him.