I’m a little curious why Gibson gets a “!!!” but Schwarzenegger, born in Austria, does not.
Bret Favre but not Ben Franklin? That’s F’ed up.
Tecumseh isn’t on there?
Okay, for some reason a quick skim of the "J"s didn’t show it. But hey.
Still think the list is too pop-culture current-events top-heavy, though.
Bear in mind, I only quoted the one’s that cheesed me off. Read the link for full listage.
Actually I cut and pasted it from Jonathan Chance’s post so you’d have to ask him. And while I’m not up on the ‘stars’ lives obviously, I do know that Arnie is a naturalized citizen. 
-XT
Earlier the page didn’t have any nominees, and visitors were invited to submit names. That’s why the list is so awful.
How come now Matt Groenig?
Nobody knows who he is. How come no Homer Simpson?
I’ll go with Washington, too, just as soon as I stop shuddering at that list. I sincerely hope some of those are jokes.
Conspicuous by their absence, where are Grant and Lee?
What a sad bubble-gum list.
Albert Einstein (if you’re willing to include immigrants) and Richard Phillips Feynman. They were the Galileo and Newton of our age, and their insights and collective contributions to humanity are as inestimable as those other two greats who came before them. I can think of few as worthy of our gratitude or who I would be happier to share citizenship with.
And that list is crap.
Yeah, but which one of the two caused your consternation?
I would tend to favor Lincoln and Franklin. But I refuse to vote on a list that includes Madonna and Tiger Woods, but excludes Sacajawea, Betty Friedan, Margaret Sanger, Black Elk, Geronimo, Clare Booth Luce, Gloria Steinem, Clara Barton, Florence Nightengale, and Sitting Bull.
Like 'em or not, these people made a difference.
Lucille Ball is a reasonable name for the Top 100, at least; she was a major pioneer in television, and if you don’t think TV is a big part of the history of the United States, you must have just arrived in a time machine from 1942.
A lot of your other supposedly silly choice are perfectly reasonable Top 100 inclusions, too. Babe Ruth, the first sports superstar and the greatest player ever of America’s national pastime. Chares Lindbergh was the biggest hero of his day. Elvis Presley may well be the most popular musician who ever lived.
What I cannot understand is why anyone would mention Robert E. Lee. You think the greatest American should be a traitor who tried to destroy the country? Gosh, why not nominate Benedict Arnold?
Diogenes,
- TOMMY DOUGLAS was a politician and is credited (to a somewhat overstated extent) as being the father of the medicare system.
- TERRY FOX was a young man who lost his leg to cancer and tried to run across the country to raise funds for cancer research. The phenomenon of people running or wheelchairing across the country to raise funds was invented by him. He died in the attempt as the cancer spread.
- PIERRE TRUDEAU was the Prime Minister from 1968 (IIRC) to 1984, with a brief interruption; his administration brought in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and official bilingualism.
- SIR FREDERICK BANTING isolated insulin and invented its use to help diabetics, which I’m sure you have heard of. He won the Nobel Prize.
- DAVID SUZUKI is a contemporary environmental scientist who had a popular TV show.
- LESTER B. PEARSON, Mike to his friends, was a diplomat who who the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his idea of creating UN peacekeeping forces; he is the only Canadian to ever win this prize. He was later Prime Minister, the one before Trudeau.
- DON CHERRY is of course a hockey commentator; his inclusion on the list is exactly equivalent to making John Madden #7 on the American list.
- SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD was essentially the founder of Canada, its first Prime Minister, and anyone who didn’t place him #1 or #2 on their ballot is a fucking idiot.
- ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, of course, is responsible for voice mail.
- WAYNE GRETZKY I am sure you know.
I’d trade off either Fox or Cherry for Arthur Curry, myself.
Oooh lets see, me being the villian that mentioned Lee 
Bear in mind I’m not American so I dont have a vested interest in nominating Lee. He’s no countryman of mine nor were his enemies, and nor was his cause one I would support. Yet he was the finest military commander America has produced, and stands as one of the great captains of history. He was respected by his foes, has been admired by millions of Americans, and his campaigns are studied to this day in military academies around the world. He counts as “great”, he was american, thus QED he is worthy of inclusion.
And so too is Grant his nemesis who I also mentioned, and who I suspect could only have been excluded from petty partisanship after it had been decided not to include Lee.
I’m voting for Kelly Clarkson.
I’m thinking on doing the same, but I am leaning to vote for another George Washington.
Carver that is.
It’s a stupid list. There is no way many of these people should be on this list of “greats”. So many of them are either Future Has Beens of show business, or big blowhards, or are simply freakish.
Greatness should be based on the amount of good done for other people, not for having a knack for lining your own pockets. It should be a lasting thing, not something that depends on TV ratings or box office receipts. It is supposed to be lasting greatness, not fleeting notoriety.
How do Dr Phil, Michael Jackson, Rush Limbaugh, Martha Stewart, etc. qualify as great people? Where are Lewis and Clark? William Crawford Gorgas? Stephen Hawkings? Eli Whitney? Samuel Adams? Francis Crick and James Watson?
There could be an entire book full of only lists of people more deserving than some of the characters on this list. It’s pathetic.
Lee lost. Like it or not, his accomplishments as a commander - the majority of them due to the ineptitude of his opposition - did not ultimately change the course of history.
He was a good field commander within the context of a battle but incapable of grasping the full strategic measure of the war. His legend is at least half bloated by his tragic choice of side and a pathetic Southern-centric reach to believe in something good in that Godawful mess of a war.
Patton was every bit the genius Lee was, and he actually WON, he actually helped his country, and his accomplishments had an impact on world history. I could name any number U.S. military commanders more worthy than Lee. Nimitz. Bradley. Sherman. Pershing. MacArthur. Spaatz. Hell, even Powell.
I can think of one reason why they’re not on the list of greatest Americans. Can’t you?