Talk:The Greatest American/Archive 1

Ronald Reagan
The 40th President of the United States, introduced fiscally expansive economic policies, and contributed greatly to the end of the Cold War.

I don't know what they teach in the U.S. but Reagan is known to have actually PROLONGED tensions between the US and USSR. Someone may want to erase that "...greatly..." from the caption on the photo.

-G —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.158.83 (talk) 05:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

arbitrary popularity contest.
Any list such as this is just an arbitrary popularity contest. I mean, how can anyone seriously believe that Ronald Reagan was a greater American than Abraham Lincoln? They are not even in the same ballpark.

The choice of George Washington is just a popular historical figure. Even a cursory examination of history will show that Ben Franklin had a much greater impact than George Washington.

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Nevertheless, this "popularity contest" was held, and Ronald Reagan was voted as the winner by the American public. This Wikipedia article simply states this fact. Whether or not you agree with the premise for this is irrelevant, yet the facts should be addressed within this article.

(By mcshadypl) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mcshadypl (talk • contribs) 04:11, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Temporarily stop editing
The article, in my opinion, is at a point where additional revisions will merely be cosmetic, for the facts have already been stated. Yet, it is constantly being bombarded with moronic posts by imbeciles who evidently have nothing more productive to do with their lives. I hereby propose that priveledges to edit this article be temporarily blocked to regular members. —This unsigned comment was added by Mcshadypl (talk • contribs).


 * Uh huh, right... Cburnett 03:46, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

incorrect top 25
reagan was their #1 (tragic, i know), not lincoln. this has resulted in the top 25 having only 24 people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.235.38.144 (talk) 06:20, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
 * As an American, I can say Reagan would've been in my top 5 but not necessarily number 1. That notwithstanding, the result was what it was.  I reverted the removal of Regan as #1 simply because it was not reflective of the truth. Lawyer2b 01:38, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

 * Benjamin Franklin - 14.9%
 * Ignorant a##hole aka Miserable failure - named "Worst Living "American"
 * Bill Clinton

No doubt George W. Bush's placement on such a list is questionable, but this is not the place for this. Kildare79 17:30, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a picture of Adolf Hitler on this page??!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by BillyBelgium (talk • contribs) 12:36, 29 March 2007 (UTC) References to Ronald McDonald should be changed. Also the validity of the titles given. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.131.208.73 (talk) 21:22, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Ronald Reagan
Perhaps the caption of the photo of Ronald Reagan should be a little less POV, despite the fact that I agree with the statements made it comes across as rather abrupt. As I said, I'm not going to change it, it doesn't quite bother me that much, in fact I find it funny that he is listed as the favourite or Greatest American yet his caption says "Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. His policies led to the second largest financial deficit in American history, the end of the 1979 energy crisis, and the death of over 30,000 Nicaraguans." Very unflattering :) Anyways, just thought I would point it out. Basser g 05:59, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh quit whining. It may not be flattering, but it's true. 67.70.22.150 19:27, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to say it since a lot of people didn't. The timing of the special was months after Reagan's death, and the condolences and tributes occurred months after his death. That's not saying he wasn't a good President, but I think a lot of the voters, particularly in California (where Reagan was governor), Texas (big Republican stronghold), and Florida (another Republican-heavy area), based their votes on those sympathies and emotions. Although I was a little surprised to see now-President Obama on the list of the Greatest Americans in the top 100, considering he was just elected to his first and only Senate tern months prior to the special. Nemalki (talk) 21:38, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

"Not universally considered American"
I'm editing this section a bit because it has unsubstantiated claims that are a bit silly. Example: That Einstein is "usually" considered German. Really? Einstein was born in Germany, lived in Prague for a while - a Czech city that was part of the Austrian Empire at the time, making him a citizen of Austria - became a citizen of Switzerland for a time, moved to the US and become a citizen there, and was at one point offered the presidency of Israel. Einstein famously said that if his theories were correct that Germany would call him a German and France would call him a citizen of the world, but if his theories were wrong then France would call him a German and Germany could call him a Jew. So that's a round about way of saying that no, he is not "usually" considered to be a German. The others on the list weren't quite as extreme as that but I still clipped a few things here and there. - HowardW Feb 18, 2008 —Preceding comment was added at 03:34, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

One Small Thing
If this is supposed to be the 100 Greatest Americans, how come #26-#100 are just listed, as opposed to being ranked? Can anybody tell me who is ranked #26-#100? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.4.1 (talk) 03:04, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

"Facts about The Greatest American" section
This listing of statistics seems too much like trivia to me. It is full of useless information. Any thoughts? 67.80.144.146 (talk) 12:43, 3 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I have also removed random information from the image captions of the "top ten" Americans. Such information is either obvious or can be looked up in the articles. When certain information is around too often here on Wikipedia, it can get very repetitive. 67.80.144.146 (talk) 12:58, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

External link to discovery channel is dead
Trying to verify bad edit, after much searching I could only find one listing. Anybody got a better way to document the original list, since Discover Channel has become ashamed of this episode? Shenme (talk) 03:35, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

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This list
The list puts Abraham Lincoln on top, but I thought that the poll was topped by Ronald Reagan. The list at the side (with the pictures of people) puts Ronald Reagan on top. Vorbee (talk) 16:51, 2 June 2018 (UTC)