# Greatest National Leader elimination game (setup thread)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [May 13, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266 "2010-05-13T03:37:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/1 "2010-05-13T03:37:29Z")
Who was the greatest national leader?
You may nominate up to five noteworthy leaders, be they heads of state, heads of government, or the equivalent (presidents, prime ministers, potentates, popes, emperors, empresses, kings, queens, generalissimos, one-party-state chairmen, etc.), _describing each in no more than three words_. Define “greatest” as you see fit; for myself, I will favor those who, IMHO, played a constructive role in national and/or international affairs. A person is still eligible if he or she was a leader from before the era of nation-states, as such.
To avoid contemporary political disputes, your nominees must have been either out of office or dead at least ten years.
Nominations will close at noon EST a week from today, Weds. May 19. After the deadline, I’ll arrange the nominees alphabetically, and we’ll vote them out much as we did in the U.S. President and Greatest American elimination games.
My nominees:
Henry V of England: Legendary warrior-king.
Elizabeth I of England: Shrewd, determined queen.
George Washington: First U.S. president.
Abraham Lincoln: Won Civil War.
Nelson Mandela: Overcame imprisonment, triumphed.
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/2 "2010-05-13T03:58:44Z")
I’m earlier to this thread than I was to the Greatest American nomination stage, so my nominees would be near the top of my actual list:
Winston Churchill – British wartime inspiration
Louis XIV – France’s “Sun King”
Anwar El Sadat – Egyptian warrior, peacemaker
Thomas Masaryk – Czechoslovakia’s founding president
Elizabeth I – England’s “Virgin Queen”
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/3 "2010-05-13T08:49:39Z")
Wellington: Statesman, general, gentleman.
Caesar Augustus: founded Roman Empire.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/4 "2010-05-13T10:05:49Z")
[Cory Aquino](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino) - Phillipine democracy restoration
[David Ben-Gurion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ben-Gurion) - First Israeli PM
[General Antonio López de Santa Anna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_L%C3%B3pez_de_Santa_Anna) - Mexican nationalist leader
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/5 "2010-05-13T13:11:50Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#):
>
> I’m earlier to this thread than I was to the Greatest American nomination stage, so my nominees would be near the top of my actual list:
>
> Winston Churchill – British wartime inspiration
> Louis XIV – France’s “Sun King”
> Anwar El Sadat – Egyptian warrior, peacemaker
> Thomas Masaryk – Czechoslovakia’s founding president
> Elizabeth I – England’s “Virgin Queen”
I’d already nominated the Virgin Queen. You may nominate someone else, if you like.
And I knew Churchill wouldn’t be too long in making an appearance!
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/6 "2010-05-13T13:32:16Z")
[Gaius Julius Caesar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar) - Roman Dictator and General
[Adolf Hitler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler) - Nazi German Leader
[Franklin Delano Roosevelt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt) - 32nd American President
[Napoleon I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Bonaparte) - French Expansionist Emperor
[Genghis Khan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan) - Founder of the Mongol Empire
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/7 "2010-05-13T13:37:43Z")
[Saladin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin) should get a mention.
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/8 "2010-05-13T13:51:11Z")
> [@yojimbo](#):
>
> [Saladin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin) should get a mention.
For me it was a tossup between Saladin and Genghis Khan. Glad he got the mention!
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/9 "2010-05-13T14:19:23Z")
Gorbachev - Cool birthmark
Deng Xiaoping - Made modern China.
Alexander the Great - Dude could conquer
Muhammad - United Arabia
Qin Shi Huang - Made China
Also, FWIW, I dislike the three word limit, half the fun of these threads is arguing for your choices. No fun if you have to do so in Haiku form.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/10 "2010-05-13T14:27:33Z")
> [@yojimbo](#):
>
> [Saladin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin) should get a mention.
And your three-word description?
**Simplicio** , this is just the setup thread. The arguments will begin once the game starts, in six days.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/11 "2010-05-13T14:46:31Z")
[Umar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar) - expanded Islamic empire
[Solon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon) - founded Athenian democracy
[Hammurabi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi) - first written laws
[Otto von Bismarck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_bismarck) - United Germany
[Mustafa Kemal Ataturk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataturk) - modernized Turkey
(The three-word description of Solon is a bit questionable, as is his historicity, but I figured what the hey. Also, I was tempted to write “nice eyebrows” for Ataturk.)
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/12 "2010-05-13T15:20:17Z")
Charlemagne, Imperator Romanorum
Mao Zedong, Chinese revolutionary
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian Prime Minister
The Meiji Emperor of Japan
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/13 "2010-05-13T17:00:52Z")
Alfred the Great - scholar, warrior, statesman
Isabella I of Castille - unified & developed Spain
Cyrus the Great - great, benevolent conqueror
Attila the Hun - humble, fearsome conqueror
Tamerlane the Great - clever, liberal conqueror
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/14 "2010-05-13T17:34:03Z")
I find it hard to summarize a person’s life in three words. So I’m just putting down names, dates, and locations.
Asoka - 3rd century BC India
Frederick II - 18th century Prussia
Charles de Gaulle - 20th century France
Pitt the Elder - 18th century Britain
Lech Walesa - 20th century Poland
eta: I see one of my original choices was already nominated.
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/15 "2010-05-13T17:40:47Z")
Menes - United Egypt
FDR - Lead through war/depression
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### Author:  [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/16 "2010-05-13T18:24:29Z")
David - Conquered the Philistines
Nebuchadnezzar II - Babylon’s greatest ruler
Gandhi - Independence through peace
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/17 "2010-05-14T00:11:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> I’d already nominated the Virgin Queen. You may nominate someone else, if you like.
>
> And I knew Churchill wouldn’t be too long in making an appearance!
Can’t believe I duplicated one of your choices! I must have been more tired than I thought when I posted just before hitting the hay.
Ataturk and Nehru were two of the others I considered, but as they’ve both been nominated, I’ll go with someone I believe at least deserves a bid, even if he’s got no chance of making the Final Four:
Haile Selassie – Ethiopia’s longtime emperor
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### Author:  [@XanderCrews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XanderCrews)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/18 "2010-05-14T00:41:11Z")
Oliver Cromwell- England a republic
Thomas Jefferson- Declaration of Independence
Fidel Castro- communist Cuba
Simon Bolivar- independent Latin America
Ramesses II - Egypt’s greatest pharaoh
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/19 "2010-05-14T00:58:31Z")
Justinian 1- Unleashed Belisarius.
Peter the Great- modernized Russia
Otto von Bismarck- Famous North Dakotan.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-national-leader-elimination-game-setup-thread/539266/20 "2010-05-14T01:08:39Z")
Ill add Montezuma just so you have the complete set of most obnoxious civilization 4 enemies.
[sub](not that I really know crap about him except that he likes to ask for bribes, then breaks the treaty 2 turns later anyway).[/sub]
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