Homer Simpson, the lovable head of the Simpson family, has been nominated the greatest American ever in an online poll ahead of the BBC-led global debate, What The World Thinks of America.
The cartoon character received 47.17% of the vote beating former United States President Abraham Lincoln, who received 9.67% and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr, with 8.54% of the vote.
The fictional character Mr T from the cult television series, the A-team, came in fourth receiving 7.83% of the votes.
Former President Bill Clinton was voted the tenth most popular American with 3.53% of the nominations.
The vote was conducted as part of a BBC-led global debate on America's place in the world.
Out of thousands of votes the BBC drew up a shortlist of 10 greatest Americans which users then voted on in a second round.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwta/2997144.stm
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A more interesting/serious stat was the question:
If you had a chance would you like to live in America?
(96% of Americans think people want to go and live there, and 74% would not live outside the USA.)
19% of outsiders said yes.
79% said no.
(I presume there weren't many dirt poor in this poll, who would jump at the chance.)
Only 1% of Aussies thought the US would be a better place to live in, which is amazingly low, most places are 15-25%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/poll/html/cultural/life.stm
[This message was edited by eek on June 17, 2003 at 04:35 PM.]
The cartoon character received 47.17% of the vote beating former United States President Abraham Lincoln, who received 9.67% and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr, with 8.54% of the vote.
The fictional character Mr T from the cult television series, the A-team, came in fourth receiving 7.83% of the votes.
Former President Bill Clinton was voted the tenth most popular American with 3.53% of the nominations.
The vote was conducted as part of a BBC-led global debate on America's place in the world.
Out of thousands of votes the BBC drew up a shortlist of 10 greatest Americans which users then voted on in a second round.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwta/2997144.stm
==========================================
A more interesting/serious stat was the question:
If you had a chance would you like to live in America?
(96% of Americans think people want to go and live there, and 74% would not live outside the USA.)
19% of outsiders said yes.
79% said no.
(I presume there weren't many dirt poor in this poll, who would jump at the chance.)
Only 1% of Aussies thought the US would be a better place to live in, which is amazingly low, most places are 15-25%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/wtwta/poll/html/cultural/life.stm
[This message was edited by eek on June 17, 2003 at 04:35 PM.]
