02-27-2004, 19:23
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#1
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Moderator
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Non-Presidents
New question (not included in the other thread because it is not about Presidents).
Who were the greatest Americans never to be President?
Limit yourself to five nominees. The choices do not have to be political figures, but should be people whose influence was on the nation as a whole, and not some discrete field. The ideal nominees would be people who weren't just great Americans, but people who helped shape American society and/or what it means to be an American.
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Airbornelawyer is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:02
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#2
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Guerrilla Chief
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Colin Powell would certainly be on the top of my list.
Benjamin Franklin
George S. Patton Jr.
Walt Disney
Alexander Graham Bell
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brewmonkey is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:06
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#3
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Guerrilla
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Colin Powell
Ben Franklin
George C. Marshall
Robert E. Lee
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CommoGeek is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:17
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#4
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Guerrilla
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Martin Luther King Jr.
Elenore Roosevelt
Henry Ford
Thomas Edison
David Crockett
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Weazle23 is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:21
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#5
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Quiet Professional
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Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
John Jay
John C. Calhoun
Douglas MacArthur
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:30
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#6
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Not to denigrate anyones selections, but some of the responses reflect either a good sense of humor, a serious lack of historical study, or some twisted socialist-liberal slant I have not detected here before.
Success as a military leader, an industrial magnate, an inventor, an actor, or a sports hero do not necessarily imbue one with the qualities desirous in a President.
George C. Marshal was an excellent answer, and I wish I had mentioned him. Thanks CommoGeek.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-27-2004, 20:38
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#7
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Guest
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George C. Marshall would be the man at the top of my list. Good pick.
Henry Ford is a good pick too.
Dr Jonas Salk, inventor of Polio vaccine.
Martin L. King.
Ross Perot.
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02-28-2004, 06:24
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#8
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Guest
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Quote:
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The ideal nominees would be people who weren't just great Americans, but people who helped shape American society and/or what it means to be an American.
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John Wayne
Henry Ford
Charlie Chaplin
Doolittle
Benjamin Franklin
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett (not their actual acts, the stories told).
Lewis and Clarke
Note that perception may be at least as important as reality, and the question does not say anything about them being potentially good presidents.
Last edited by brownapple; 02-28-2004 at 06:27.
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02-28-2004, 10:12
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#9
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Quiet Professional
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Re: Non-Presidents
Quote:
Originally posted by Airbornelawyer
Limit yourself to five nominees. The choices do not have to be political figures, but should be people whose influence was on the nation as a whole, and not some discrete field. The ideal nominees would be people who weren't just great Americans, but people who helped shape American society and/or what it means to be an American.
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Since one could take Great in the above passage to mean larger than life, and since he did shape American society as a whole during his heyday, how about
Al Capone?
And since I am the son of an 18B,
how about John Browning or Richard Gatling?
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Air.177 is offline
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03-01-2004, 15:04
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#10
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Moderator
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Re: Re: Non-Presidents
Quote:
Originally posted by Air.177
And since I am the son of an 18B,
how about John Browning or Richard Gatling?
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A better choice would probably be Eli Whitney. His invention of machinery for making rifles (and eventually other tools) with interchangeable parts revolutionized warfare and industry. Add in the cotton gin, and his inventions may have both helped cause the Civil War (by changing the economics of slavery) and made it deadlier (by making guns a manufactured item, rather than a crafted one).
Browning, Gatling and Samuel Colt are more limited to their discrete field, so they don't fit the criteria.
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Airbornelawyer is offline
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03-01-2004, 15:15
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#11
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Consigliere
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How about John Marshall?
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Roguish Lawyer is offline
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03-01-2004, 15:59
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#12
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Guerrilla
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Sam Adams ( and not for the beer )
Thomas Paine
Barry Goldwater
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DunbarFC is offline
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03-01-2004, 16:01
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#13
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Consigliere
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Roguish Lawyer is offline
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03-01-2004, 17:33
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#14
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Moderator
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And here I was waiting to see all the responses before weighing in, and you steal one of my main ones! OK, my list:
1. Benjamin Franklin - author, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat. politician, America's greatest Renaissance Man
2. John Marshall - Veteran of Valley Forge; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835, he is essentially the father of judicial review
3. George Mason - author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, model for the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights; one of the fathers of the Constitution.
4. Alexander Hamilton - Another Valley Forge veteran, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers; first Treasury Secretary; stifler of Aaron Burr's political ambitions and stopper of Aaron Burr's bullet.
5. George C. Marshall - Wartime leadership, post-war diplomacy
Honorable Mentions:
Thomas Paine
John Jay
Eli Whitney
Henry Clay
Frederick Douglass
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Salmon P. Chase (the guy on the $10,000 bill)
Thomas Alva Edison
Henry Ford
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Airbornelawyer is offline
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03-01-2004, 17:55
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#15
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Quiet Professional
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My Dad (he got up and went to work every day at a crappy job without complaining once or taking a sick day - still does at 69)
Every American POW/MIA from every war
Any American that would rather work at anything than accept 10 cents of welfare because they are able bodied.
Any American single mom working two or more jobs to keep from going on the dole and still raises a respectful contributing future member of society.
Any American that served voluntarily in the military or public service despite knowing they "could do better".
Any "challenged" American that overcomes the odds.
Ok, I did six. FTFSI
Honorable Mention - not Americans
Kurds
Sweatshop workers
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He knows only The Cause.
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