A 'feel good' Most Admired poll

[Stinky The Clown]

Vote for the one person you most admire. Agreement with the person is not a requirement. Unbridled admiration is all that matters. Some are still with us and some are sorely missed.

I specifically left Martin Luther King and FDR off the list out of a realization that they'd likely eclipse the list.

There are so many more who could be on the list. Use the 'other' button to select that choice and let us know who **you** admire.

For me? Geroge McGovern, the quiet war hero turned peace candidate. But he nudges out the others by a scant smidge. This is my list and ought to give some insight into my own choices. :)

[kiraboo]

1. I'm going with Rosa Parks

with a nod to Redstone, because he's kinda cute.

[saltpoint]

2. A tough-to-choose-just-one list, but I went with Mario Cuomo.

Would that he had become our president.

A great group of choices, Husb2Sparkly.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Tough-to-choose .... the result of an

embarassment of riches.

[saltpoint]

11. Yes. Great group of folks, great poll, too.

[longship]

4. From my generation.

Love McGovern, voted for Bobby. He would have been grand in the White House.
Instead, he was murdered and we got Nixon. Oh the dreams of what could have been.

One thing for sure. If Bobby gets elected in 1968, we don't have Reagan or the Chimp.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Bobby probably got more people involed in the process than ....

... St. Ronnie.

[The Jacobin]

5. Being a native Texan, I have to go with Jordan.

Barbara Jordan

Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American politician from Texas. She served as a member of Congress from 1973 to 1979.

Jordan was born in Houston, Texas's Fourth Ward. Jordan attended Wheatley High School and graduated magna cum laude from Texas Southern University in 1956 and from Boston University Law School in 1959. She passed the Bar Exams in Massachusetts and Texas before returning to Houston to open a law practice.

Active in the Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign of 1960, Jordan wanted to be a part of the change. She unsuccessfully ran for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964. Her persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first African American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body. Reelected to a full term in the Texas Senate in 1968, she served until 1972. She was the first african-american female to serve as president pro tem of the state senate and served briefly as acting governor of Texas in 1972.

In 1972, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the House. She received extensive support from President Lyndon Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House Judiciary Committee.

After winning re-election, in 1974, she made an influential televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her legislative accomplishments include the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and expansion of that act to cover language minorities. This extended protection to Hispanics in Texas which was opposed by Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe and Secretary of State Mark White. Her speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention is considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history.

. . .

P.S. Who's Amadeo Giannini?

[pepperbear]

7. founder, bank of america eom

[Stinky The Clown]

8. "P.S. Who's Amadeo Giannini?" You win the rubber ducky!

That was a ringer. He founded Bank of America and made a boatload of loans to the newly-destitute of San Francisco right after the earthquake and fire. It started as The Bank of Naples (no connection to the real one in Italy). After the quake and before the fire, he went to his vault and pulled all the cash out. He got a fruitmonger friend to load the cash on his wagon, hidden under the fruit and they hightailed it out of Dodge. After the fire was out, he went back to the old neighborhood and set up his 'bank' on some boards pulled from the rubble. He made loans with no collateral requirements.

Not completely altruistic, however, he also bought, literally, boatloads of lumber down the coast and made a second fortune selling it when no one had any. He didn't gouge, but he *did* make money.

His bank, while he ran it, was community based and highly regarded. The Bank of America name came quite a bit later, and, while I'm not sure of this, after his death, I think.

[Solon]

13. Also funded Mussolini...

Giannini’s banking empire rivalled that of Rockefeller and Morgan. Giannini, a friend and admirer of Mussolini, handled some of the dictator’s business accounts, though Morgan was his main foreign banker, supplying a $100 million loan in 1926. Giannini was the prime funder of one America’s biggest Italian newspapers, L’Italia. It promoted the idea that America would do well to adopt the new fascist model of government.

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/belgrano.html

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Whoa!

Color me educated!

I guess I never got further than reading Great Italian Americans For Dummies!

I stand corrected.

[niallmac]

9. Had something brilliant to say but man do I ever love that Rush

Limbaugh poster!:rofl: :rofl:

[TahitiNut]

17. I can only blame the fewer votes for Barbara Jordan to the callow youth

... of too many DUers who don't remember her. I have enormous respect for Jimmy Carter and Mario Cuomo, but Barbara Jordan was something else - a separate league entirely, imho. She'd bring tears to my eyes and goose bumps to my skin so many times when she spoke. Her 1976 keynote address at the convention was stupendous! It ranked on a par with the best of FDR and JFK without question - perhaps even better. And it wasn't mere rhetoric - it was absolutely genuine and heartfelt.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. You're so right

And, even based solely on the weight of that speech in 76 she gets on this list. That speech, was, as you so correctly point out, among the very greatest of all time.

I had found a link to a clip of it someplace on the internet a while ago and linked it to a thread here.

[Mist]

6. Rosa Parks. The quiet courageous determination of a single person. nt

[TygrBright]

10. Sargent Shriver

He was the strategic general behind the War on Poverty. All the truly great ideas trace back to him at some point. Head Start, Legal Aid, Peace Corps, CETA, work-study, Job Corps, VISTA, Neighborhood Youth Corps, etc... the list is too long to cite. He grasped the essential principle that there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you're willing to let others take the credit for it.

He grasped the truth (as very few other politicians have) that change MUST come from the people, not from the politicians, in order to endure. He was politically savvy (check out the history of the Congressional Leadership for the Future) but always in the service of providing Americans with genuinely responsive representation. He was also the most hated, vilified, secretly undermined man in the Democratic Party because he wouldn't play ball with the big-money shell-game crowd. HOW they jumped with glee at the opportunity to paint him as a heartless opportunist greedy for a spot on the Presidential ticket who was willing to shoulder Eagleton out of the way at a moment's notice. (He was so "eager" it took Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, and a whole raft of other people he respected to wheedle him into it by playing on his sense of responsibility.)

It was only the Kennedy connection that kept him from being submarined sooner. That surreptitious but vast sigh of relief from the Dem side of the aisle after the final results were in in 1972 wasn't just because the Party didn't have to deal with McGovern's sense of integrity and commitment to getting America out of the war, it was also because the Party didn't have to deal with Shriver's integrity and commitment to economic justice.

reminiscently,
Bright

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Bright, good choice and great summary

The days that once were ... may they be again. Honest intrigues and party spats the result of which, for either side, would not have harmed us a whit.

[Bucky]

14. One for Fiorello, who was already there before "there" was there.

He really cut the mold of the enlightened modern populist liberal. He made big city government work for people, saw the big picture, and worked to make sure as many people as possible were included in it. He fought corruption and invariably took the high road. When you define a class politician, you're defining LaGuardia.

|

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorello_LaGuardia

[Stinky The Clown]

20. My dad told me about listening to him read the funnies on the radio

during the Depression. his job was lifting people up when everyone needed a lift. His mayoral career was the height of his political career, but what a height it was.

Speaking of heights and lifts, word is, he wore them in hs shoes. :)

[Bjornsdotter]

15. Susan B Anthony

She spent her whole life making sure that I would have the right to vote.

Also admire Elizabeth Cady Stanton...see above.

Cheers

[Stinky The Clown]

23. And today, she must be spinning in her grave.

Sad.

[Zynx]

16. Since you didn't specify an American: Oscar Romero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

[Stinky The Clown]

24. I saw your post and skipped over it several times ....

.... thinking, in my haste, that it said Cesar Romero (which kinda caused a head scratch).

I apologize for that. I followed the link. He was, indeed, a great man.

[ruggerson]

22. That's a no brainer. Barbara Jordan. n/t

[Buck Laser]

25. Tough one. I finally voted for McGovern...

But I surely do admire Jimmy Carter. In some ways, I think he's closer to being a Thomas Jefferson than any of the others. I would have loved to choose Barbara Jordan, but her career didn't really last all that long because of her health problems. Similarly, I admire Jesse Jackson'a and Mario Cuomo's oratorical skills. Mrs. Parks was an invaluable icon to a couple of generations.

[Rowdyboy]

26. I voted Barbara Jordan because she spoke with the voice of God....

during some of our country's most miserable hours. My respect for her is boundless. She was a unique individual that has no current equal and I don't hesitate to call her my most admired political figure.

[Change has come]

27. Here's a link to the Barbara Jordan keynote speech

I'm getting a history lesson on DU tonight. Thanks :patriot:


http://www.elf.net/bjordan/keynote.html

[Stinky The Clown]

28. The text is inspiring. Her delivery was heart stopping

The strong, measured voice, with the lilt of her southern roots so carefully cultivated into a precisely tuned instrument. Her words so crisp and clear and resounding.

There are a few speeches that have brought tears to my eyes. Hers is one. Along with speeches by Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo, all delivered at Democratic conventions. Those three may well be the greatest orators of my generation. They are, in today's political circles, still unrivalled.

If you search, I know that at least hers and Cuomos are available as video clips. I'd guess Jackson's is, too, but I've never hunted for it.

on edit ..... Old Caruso is a big Cuomo fan. He may know where a link to Cuomo's best speeches are.

[suffragette]

30. Here's a link to a video clip of her speech in 1976

I remember when she gave it. I cried, too. She was an eloquent, powerful and moving speaker.
The clip has an odd echo and is tiny, but you can enlarge by opening external player.
http://txtell.lib.utexas.edu/stories/media/j0001-video.html

Found this page, too. http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/jordan.html
Note the quote from her address to the House Judiciary Committee over the impeachment of Nixon:
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."

Those words ring just as true today.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Thanks for that walk down memory lane.

She was quite something.

[Swamp Rat]

29. Rosa Parks

AND Jimmy Carter