Greatest American elimination game (game thread)

The Game Room
301

And it is past 12 EST on Friday, so here we go:

1 Henry Bergh 14
2 Ralph Waldo Emerson 12
3 Robert Frost 11
3 Lewis and Clark 11
5 George Gershwin 10
5 Helen Keller 10
5 John J. Pershing 10
5 Eleanor Roosevelt 10
9 Sitting Bull 9
9 Chief Joseph 9
9 Will Rogers 9

Thomas Edison 8
William Seward 8
Daniel Webster 8

Jim Thorpe 7

Dwight D. Eisenhower 6
William Lloyd Garrison 6
James Madison 6
Upton Sinclair 6

Jonas Salk 5

Langston Hughes 3
Orville and Wilbur Wright 3
John Franklin Enders 3
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 3
Edgar Allan Poe 3
Henry David Thoreau 3

Walt Whitman 2

Jackie Robinson
Harriet Tubman
Earl Warren

Harry Truman 0

302

At this point, I feel like we’re down to few enough survivors that I won’t bother updating the category-by-category list. If someone else wants to, feel free.

303

Tough round for my nominees; Bergh, Keller, and Sitting Bull were mine. :stuck_out_tongue: Ah well, Lincoln was taken. :stuck_out_tongue:

304

Thanks again, Tom Scud.

Bergh through Rogers are now gone. It’s only going to get tougher from here. That leaves us with:

Susan B. Anthony: Suffrage activist
George Washington Carver: Agricultural botanist
Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist, orator
Thomas Edison: Inventor, workaholic
Dwight D. Eisenhower: President, war hero
John Franklin Enders: Modern vaccines pioneer
Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, statesman, inventor
William Lloyd Garrison: Abolitionist, writer
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Supreme Court Justice
Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance poet
Martin Luther King Jr.: Preacher, orator, humanitarian
Abraham Lincoln: President, emancipator, writer
James Madison: President, Framer, statesman
George Marshall: General, diplomat, statesman
John Marshall: Fourth Chief Justice
Thomas Paine: Political theorist, pamphleteer
Edgar Allan Poe: Poet, writer, critic
Jackie Robinson: Athlete, activist, inspiration
Franklin D. Roosevelt: President, reformer, statesman
Theodore Roosevelt: President, conservationist, statesman
Jonas Salk: Polio vaccine inventor
William Seward: Diplomat; bought Alaska
Upton Sinclair: Author, muckraker
Henry David Thoreau: Poet, naturalist, philosopher
Jim Thorpe: Native American athlete
Harry Truman: President, statesman
Harriet Tubman: Civil rights advocate
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens): Humorist, “Huckleberry Finn”
Earl Warren: Chief Justice, governor
George Washington: President, general, statesman
Daniel Webster: Orator, advocate, statesman
Walt Whitman: Civil War poet
Roger Williams: Statesman, religious leader
Orville and Wilbur Wright: Aviation pioneers, inventors

New rules for voting, as mentioned earlier: now it’s five votes each, and no more than one on any individual. The next round will conclude at noon EST on Mon. March 1.

305

Five for (not) fighting:

Langston Hughes
Edgar Allan Poe
Upton Sinclair
Henry David Thoreau
Earl Warren

Mostly, this is my anti-poet and writer vote. And I want to compliment everyone for keeping Garrison in (although I didn’t nominate him). He’s way underrated.

306

My five:

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Edgar Allan Poe
Upton Sinclair
Jim Thorpe
Harry Truman

307

Thomas Edison
Henry David Thoreau
Langston Hughes
Roger Williams
Orville and Wilbur Wright

308

Daniel Webster
Jim Thorpe (and, dammit, it hurts to write that)
John Franklin Enders
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
William Seward

309

Langston Hughes
Jonas Salk
William Seward
Earl Warren
Daniel Webster

This group is roughly equal to the size of the field left once the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament is over, so it’s sad to see some gritty efforts (especially Hughes and Warren, in my case) stopped short of the Sweet Sixteen.

310

I had Thorpe too but realized that I could keep him over Langston Hughes.

Keep Thorpe, vote a poet. :slight_smile:

311

Langston Hughes
Walt Whitman
Theodore Roosevelt
Henry David Thoreau
William Seward

312

I loves me some Jim Thorpe stories, but was he a great American like the man who wrote “Let America Be America Again” and ignited a revolution in poetic language? Nope. At the end of the day, he was a guy who could play any sport better than anybody else–which is cool, but not the mettle of a Great American.

And if you only knew how much I idolized Jim Thorpe as a kid…

I guess acknowledging that Langston Hughes is a greater American than Jim Thorpe is the price for growing up.

313

Nicely put, StusBlues.

My votes for this round:

George Washington Carver
John Franklin Enders
Thomas Paine
Upton Sinclair
Roger Williams

314

You chose Hughes over Edgar Allen Poe? Meh, says I.

315

Thank you for the nice complement. That said, do you really think that the person who established the first bastion of religious freedom in America is not a greater American than Jim Thorpe?

And this is from a guy who grew up with a Jim Thorpe poster on his wall. He may have been our greatest athlete, but his accomplishments did not transcend the playing field. Hate to pick on him, but Roger Williams is one of the truly great figures in our history, and Thorpe, great as he was, is not.

316

Coin toss, I like Poe better. I understand the importance of Hughes but do not enjoy his work. I’ll vote Poe next time though and quite possibly Thorpe.

317

William Lloyd Garrison
Jim Thorpe
Harriet Tubman
Edgar Allan Poe
Jackie Robinson

318

Orville and Wilbur Wright
Jim Thorpe
Walt Whitman
William Lloyd Garrison
Upton Sinclair

319

I cannot say that all of my votes are completely rational. I’ve always admired and respected Jim Thorpe. He overcame tremendous adversity and still set a standard of good sportsmanship, deep humility and amazing skill that is legendary. Roger Williams just doesn’t evoke the same visceral reaction in me.

320

Jim Thorpe 5

Walt Whitman 5