Ambrose Bierce - 2 votes
Marilyn Monroe - 2 votes
Henry Ford - 2 votes
Franklyn Lloyd Wright - 4 votes
Not clear if we’re limited to 2 votes per person yet or if we can pile on. I’d pile on Franklyn Lloyd Wright because leaky roofs and building on top of running water (ensuring maximum rot in the shortest amount of time) shows he was incompetent at basic architecture and spiteful.
If we are limited to two votes each then consider those above two lost in the void.
That’s a good characterization of Lindburgh. Ford was a straight-up anti-Semite, though, and he had good reason (by his ideology, anyway) for supporting Hitler.
I will say that I wouldn’t vote him off anywhere near this stage, though. Despite his role as propagandist on the wrong side of history, he probably changed American life more than nearly anyone on this list. One overlooked fact in evaluating him is that he was one of the first captains of industry to advocate substantial pay increases for workers–both to create a market for his product and to stave off more intrusive labor activism.
Ford was a genuine nitwit. All he knew was building cars. He was incredibly ignorant about everything else. There was even a lawsuit over the issue. As I recall, some journalist had called Ford ignorant and Ford sued for libel. Then at the trial, the journalist’s lawyer cross-examined Ford on a number of basic facts and Ford couldn’t answer any of them correctly. The judge ruled that saying Ford was ignorant appeared to be factual.
So what’s unfortunate is that Ford had an advisor who was an anti-semite. It was this guy who told Ford all about how the Jews were trying to run the world and kill Christian children. And Ford, dumb as a rock, believed everything he was told.
From the OP:
…In the first elimination round… each player has ten votes to use as he or she sees fit, but can spread them around among several nominees, or even spend them all to eliminate a single nominee…
This ship has probably sailed, but while this strikes me as a fair criticism of Monroe, Ball had a lot more creative input into her show than most stars do, and her show was incredibly influential on both the form television took for the rest of the century and the business of television (whether you think that’s good or bad is another matter). Also, though I don’t think too much weight should be put on it, Lucy and Desi were one of the first interracial or at least inter-ethnic couples to be put before the public in a big way.
Anyway, Lucy looks close to certain to be voted out in the first round, and I’m a bit sad about that.
I compared Lucille Ball to Jack Kirby. Ball was certainly a major figure in the history of television sitcoms just as Kirby was a major figure in the history of comic books. But then I asked myself: how important are television sitcoms and comic books to American history as a whole?
And it’s 12 Eastern Time. Elendil’s Heir has asked me to do the official tally, so here it is:
Daniel Bliss 6
Jim Henson 6
Walt Kelly 6
Carl Sagan 6
Bruce Catton 4
Willis Carrier 4
Babe Ruth 4
Frank Lloyd Wright 4
John Coltrane 3
Harry Bergh 3
Douglas MacArthur 3
Joshua Chamberlain 2
Walt Disney 2
J.P. Morgan 2
Will Rogers 2
PT Barnum
Carrie Chapman Catt
Aaron Copland
Richard Feynman
Robert Frost
George Gershwin
Kurt Godel
Helen Keller
Martin Luther King Jr.
Audie Murphy
Elvis Presley
John D. Rockefeller
Eleanor Roosevelt
Margaret Sanger
Nikola Tesla
Harriet Tubman
Mark Twain
John von Neumann
Daniel Webster
Eli Whitney
Up to the OP to decide what to do about the tie. Alternate tie-breakers I can see:
(1) whoever was voted to their current vote level the earliest.
(2) reverse alphabetical order (in this case, Zaharias) - I think there’s been a very slight bias against people towards the beginning of the alphabet.
(3) some sort of run-off
I still favor the “everyone’s a loser” approach, since we are after all trying to winnow out the list quickly during these rounds.
Many thanks, Tom.
Everyone in the top bracket of the list, from Malcolm X through Babe Zaharias, is now eliminated.
For the second round of voting, each of us again has ten votes, but may use no more than five votes against any individual.
The Presidents are no longer immune.
No vote trading, please. Let’s consider all of the nominees on their merits.
The second round of voting will conclude at noon EST on Tues. Feb. 16.
An update of the category-by-category list:
Politicians and activists:
US Presidents and other political leaders:
Presidents (13):
John Adams: President, writer, statesman
Dwight D. Eisenhower: President, war hero
Andrew Jackson: President, general, populist
Thomas Jefferson: President, Declaration writer
John F. Kennedy: President, “New Frontier”
Abraham Lincoln: President, emancipator, writer
James Madison: President, Framer, statesman
Richard Nixon: President, lawyer, author
James K Polk: President, statesman
Franklin D. Roosevelt: President, reformer, statesman
Theodore Roosevelt: President, conservationist, statesman
Harry Truman: President, statesman
George Washington: President, general, statesman
Other leaders (9):
Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, statesman, inventor
Alexander Hamilton: Financier, economist, statesman
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Supreme Court Justice
George Marshall: General, diplomat, statesman
John Marshall: Fourth Chief Justice
William Seward: Diplomat; bought Alaska
Earl Warren: Chief Justice, governor
Daniel Webster: Orator, advocate, statesman
Roger Williams: Statesman, religious leader
Native American leaders (3):
Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt): Leader, peacemaker, tactician
Sitting Bull: Indian leader, warrior
Tecumseh: Indian leader, uniter
Activists:
Women’s rights/suffrage (3):
Susan B. Anthony: Suffrage activist
Carrie Chapman Catt: Women’s rights suffragist
Margaret Sanger: Birth-control pioneer
Civil Rights/Abolitionists (9/10):
John Brown: Righteous, inspirational abolitionist
Cesar Chavez: Civil rights activist
Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist, orator
William Lloyd Garrison: Abolitionist, writer
Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance poet
Martin Luther King Jr.: Preacher, orator, humanitarian
Jackie Robinson: Athlete, activist, inspiration
Eleanor Roosevelt: Reformer, writer, advocate
Harriet Tubman: Civil rights advocate
[del]Malcolm X: Civil rights leader[/del]
Other Activists (5):
Henry Bergh: Saved children, animals
Daniel Bliss: Educator, AUB founder
Thomas Nast: Editorial cartoonist, muckraker
Thomas Paine: Political theorist, pamphleteer
Upton Sinclair: Author, muckraker
Scientists and inventors (15):
Willis Carrier: Air conditioning pioneer
George Washington Carver: Agricultural botanist
Thomas Edison: Inventor, workaholic
Albert Einstein: Scientist, activist
John Franklin Enders: Modern vaccines pioneer
Philo Farnsworth: TV piorneer, inventor
Richard Feynman: Physicist, Renaissance man
Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, statesman, inventor
Kurt Gödel: Mathematician, incompleteness theorem
Carl Sagan: Astronomer, science popularizer
Jonas Salk: Polio vaccine inventor
Nikola Tesla: Inventor, engineer
John von Neumann: Mathematician, scientist, polymath
Eli Whitney: Inventor, cotton gin
Orville and Wilbur Wright: Aviation pioneers, inventors
Businessmen and industrialists (6/7):
P.T. Barnum: World’s greatest showman
Andrew Carnegie: Industrialist, philanthropist
Walt Disney: Animator, entrepreneur, icon
Thomas Edison: Inventor, workaholic
[del]Henry Ford: Inventor, industrialist, philanthropist[/del]
J.P. Morgan: Financial giant, tycoon
John D. Rockefeller: Billionaire, philanthropist
Generals and soldiers (7):
Joshua Chamberlain: Civil War hero
Dwight D. Eisenhower: President, war hero
Andrew Jackson: President, general, populist
Douglas MacArthur: WWII general
Audie Murphy: Decorated soldier, actor
George S. Patton: WWII general, orator
John J. Pershing: Top WWI general
Writers (12/17):
[del]Ambrose Bierce: Author, journalist, satirist, critic[/del]
[del]James Branch Cabell: Author, marriage proponent[/del]
Bruce Catton: Civil War historian
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Philosopher, writer
Robert Frost: Greatest American poet
[del]Robert Heinlein: Science fiction author[/del]
Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance poet
Helen Keller: Redefined language, mind
[del]H.P. Lovecraft: Horror writer[/del]
Thomas Paine: Political theorist, pamphleteer
Edgar Allan Poe: Poet, writer, critic
Will Rogers: Humorist, social commentator
[del]Shel Silverstein: Author, humorist[/del]
Upton Sinclair: Author, muckraker
Henry David Thoreau: Poet, naturalist, philosopher
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens): Humorist, “Huckleberry Finn”
Walt Whitman: Civil War poet
“Show biz” (5/7):
[del]Lucille Ball: Actress, comedian, redhead[/del]
P.T. Barnum: World’s greatest showman
Walt Disney: Animator, entrepreneur, icon
Jim Henson: Beloved children’s programmer
[del]Marilyn Monroe: Legendary film star[/del]
Edward R Murrow: Broadcaster
Orson Welles: Writer, director, actor
Musicians and composers (5/6):
Leonard Bernstein: Composer, conductor, educator
John Coltrane: Musician, composer
Aaron Copland: Composer, musician
George Gershwin: Prolific, versatile composer
[del]Jimi Hendrix, musician and activist[/del]
Elvis Presley, rock-and-roller
Comics (2/3):
Walt Kelly: “Pogo” creator, humorist
[del]Jack Kirby: Comics pioneer[/del]
Thomas Nast: Editorial cartoonist, muckraker
Athletes (4/5):
Jesse Owens: Famed Olympic athlete
Jackie Robinson: Athlete, activist, inspiration
Babe Ruth: Legendary baseball icon
Jim Thorpe: Native American athlete
[del]Babe Zaharias: Greatest female athlete[/del]
Miscellaneous (2/3):
Lewis and Clark (Meriwether and William, resp.): Louisiana Purchase explorers
[del]Charles Lindbergh: Aviator, American hero[/del]
Frank Lloyd Wright: Prairie School architect
And for votes:
Nixon 4
Tesla 1
Henson 1
Sagan 1
(from my first ballot)
And some athletes:
Ruth 1
Owens 1
Thorpe 1
I think I’ll take a harder look at scientists, politicians, and so on next round.
PT Barnum
Bruce Catton
Joshua Chamberlain
John Adams
John Adams
John Adams
John Adams
John Adams
Daniel Bliss
John F. Kennedy
Barnum - 1 vote
Bergh - 1 vote
Bliss - 1 vote
Disney - 1 vote
Henson - 1 vote
Kelly - 1 vote
Ruth - 3 votes
Frank Lloyd Wright - 1 vote
Keeping with my “one vote each” policy for now:
Daniel Bliss
Bruce Catton
Joshua Chamberlain
Richard Feynman
Jim Henson
Walt Kelly
Richard Nixon
Carl Sagan
Margaret Sanger
Nikola Tesla
:eek: You wouldn’t have done that if you’d read about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, hero of Gettysburg, winner of the Medal of Honor, educator, scholar, citizen, soldier. 
Franklyn Lloyd Wright - 5 votes
P.T. Barnum - 4 votes
Nixon - 1 vote
5 on Nixon
5 on Jackson
Pretty much. That dude was the MAN during the Civil war. And he was wounded but kept on fighting as well!
He was all that and a beer. Chamberlain Pale Ale | Shipyard Brewing Company | BeerAdvocate
Elvis Presley-2 votes
Richard Nixon-2 votes
Daniel Bliss-2 votes
Carrie Chapman Catt-2 votes
Jim Henson-2 votes