I haven't paid much attention to The Discovery Channel's series, "The Greatest American," which smacks of a giant promotion for The Today Show in an attempt to attract a giant Today Show audience. Tonight, though, I flipped by just as Matt Lauer was announcing the final five: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Benjamin Franklin, and
Ronald Reagan. The order of popularity wasn't revealed, but Reagan probably isn't last, because we were informed that George Jr. was only half a percentage point away from Franklin.
I was even more nauseated by the American Idol-style panel of judges (who don't have any special voting powers), which comprised of Randy Jackson from American Idol, Dennis Miller from unemployment, and Ann Coulter from her home planet.
(more, plus a poll about an action plan below)
The audience was divided into five candidate cheering sections, with each including a chief spokesperson. Reagan's representative was Dinesh D'Souza. Amusingly, all the other contingents booed loudly when Reagan was mentioned, far in excess of the more playful boos between King's and Lincoln's groups, for example. D'Souza presented Reagan as saving the economy and ending the Cold War. He also attacked Lincoln for how he ended slavery, asserting that ending the Cold War was death-free, while the Civil War was, you know, pretty bloody. I believe the exact phrase was, "Sure, Lincoln freed the slaves, but at what cost?" (He answered that the cost was too high.)
As unpopular as Reagan was among the supporters of actual heroes, though, there's a big risk of the right blogosphere Freeping the thing for Reagan. I wonder, which candidate is most popular in Kosville, and is there any agreement to pick a "Kos candidate" to focus on?