Vote for greatest Americans of all time

Discovery channel got this list of 25 from viewers as the greatest Americans. If it's still open, you can vote free of charge from a landline for a list of the 10 greatest.

Muhammed Ali 1-866-669-3101
Lance Armstrong 1-866-669-3102
Neil Armstrong 1-866-669-3103
George Bush 1-866-669-3104
Bill Clinton 1-866-669-3105
Walt Disney 1-866-669-3106
Edison 1-866-669-3107
Einstein 1-866-669-3108
Henry Ford 1-866-669-3109
Franklin 1-866-669-3110
Bill Gates 1-866-669-3111
Billy Graham 1-866-669-3112
Bob Hope 1-866-669-3113
Jefferson 1-866-669-3114
JFK 1-866-669-3115
Martin Luther King Jr. 1-866-669-3116
Lincoln 1-866-669-3117
Rosa Parks 1-866-669-3118
Elvis Presley 1-866-669-3119
Reagan 1-866-669-3120
Eleanor Roosevelt 1-866-669-3121
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) 1-866-669-3122
Washington 1-866-669-3123
Oprah Winfrey 1-866-669-3124
Wright Brothers 1-866-669-3125

One has to wonder what the hell Muhammed Ali, Lance Armstrong (say what!?), Neil Armstrong, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Billy Graham, Bob Hope (!?), and Oprah Winfrey are doing on the list, and why Mark Twain and Louis Armstrong aren't on it. I guess #1 would be between Lincoln and Dr King. (Einstein is German, isn't he?) Three of them -- Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Oprah -- have been extraordinary succeesful in business. The only cultural figures are Walt Disney, Bob Hope and Elvis. Surely we've done better than that.

The Brits greatest 10: Brunel (engineer), Churchill, Cromwell, Darwin, Princess Di, Queen Elizabeth I, John Lennon, Horatio Nelson, Newton, Shakespeare. Again, what are Princess Di and Lennon doing on the list? Ahead of Dickens and Austen?

The French greatest 10: Charles de Gaulle, Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, comedian Coluche, comic actor and singer Bourvil, Victor Hugo, Molière, Edith Piaf, Jacques Cousteau, and Jesuit priest Abbé Pierre, a poverty activist who helped Jews escape Nazis (and, at age 92, the only living candidate). Interesting that they have three performers on their list. Fun-loving nation, I guess.

The German 10, in order of greatness: Adenauer, Martin Luther, Marx (east-German vote), Hans and Sophie Scholl (Hitler resisters), Willy Brandt, Bach, Goethe, Gutenberg, Bismarck, Einstein. This seems to be the only list one can't quibble with. Good mix of statesmen and cultural giants.

These lists really say more about the various nations, not their great people. The French, Brits and Americans have all made loony choices. Only the Germans haven't.

As for which nation's greatest has made the greatest contribution to humankind, I'd say the Brits. Between Shakespeare, Darwin, and Newton, that's a lot. Beats our Lincoln, Dr King, and Edison, for example, or the French Curie, Pasteur, and Moliere, although three German greats -- Marx, Gutenberg and Einstein -- come close. The Jews -- Jesus, Marx, Einstein, Freud -- might beat the Brits. Ironic that it's Jews who make the German list so formidable.