{"id":1286,"date":"2003-06-13T05:15:21","date_gmt":"2003-06-13T19:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/06\/13\/the-greatest-american-is\/"},"modified":"2019-12-05T10:08:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T18:08:40","slug":"the-greatest-american-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/06\/13\/the-greatest-american-is\/","title":{"rendered":"The greatest American is&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:14436,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk\\\/1\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/default.stm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20231209110232\\\/http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk\\\/1\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/default.stm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:48:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:48:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14437,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk\\\/2\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/2959462.stm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20031001224119\\\/http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk:80\\\/2\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/2959462.stm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:49:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:49:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14438,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk\\\/1\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/2962622.stm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20090302113529\\\/http:\\\/\\\/news.bbc.co.uk:80\\\/1\\\/hi\\\/programmes\\\/wtwta\\\/2962622.stm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:49:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 22:49:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>In preparation for a show airing next week entitled &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/programmes\/wtwta\/default.stm\" title=\"What the World Thinks of America\">What the World Thinks of America<\/a>,&#8217; the BBC took nominations for the ten greatest Americans of all time. Nominations have closed, and now it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/programmes\/wtwta\/2959462.stm\" title=\"Your Greatest American\">time to vote!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, out of a completely open playing field, what ten people were nominated as the ten greatest Americans ever?<\/p>\n<p>Bill Clinton, Bob Dylan, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Homer Simpson, Mr.\u00a0T, and George Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Homer Simpson? Mr.\u00a0T?<\/p>\n<p>And, while this is kind of amusing, it&#8217;s also kind of disturbing &#8212; the current standings, after 28,548 votes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bill Clinton (3.53%)<\/li>\n<li>Franklin D Roosevelt (3.78%)<\/li>\n<li>Benjamin Franklin (4.07%)<\/li>\n<li>George Washington (4.62%)<\/li>\n<li>Bob Dylan (5.12%)<\/li>\n<li>Thomas Jefferson (5.72%)<\/li>\n<li>Mr.\u00a0T (8.17%)<\/li>\n<li>Martin Luther King Jr.\u00a0(9.08%)<\/li>\n<li>Abraham Lincoln (9.60%)<\/li>\n<li>Homer Simpson (46.33%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the record, I voted for Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/p>\n<p>(via Prairie)<\/p>\n<p>Update: The website for the show (linked above) looks very interesting too. It includes a short <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/programmes\/wtwta\/2962622.stm\" title=\"What do you know about America?\">10-question quiz<\/a> about America &#8212; that I got a whopping 60% on. Ouch. Maybe I need to watch the show, too&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, out of a completely open playing field, what ten people were nominated as the ten greatest Americans ever?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-links"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}