great leaders, who are your favorites? - Page 3

You forgot Иосиф Сталин, Pol Pot and Kim Jong-Il

And of course leader No. 1:



Jon.

Albus Dumbledore.

Napoleon I Pericles

Hannibal.
Alexander.
Lincoln
FDR
Churchill

Louis XIV Cardinal Richelieu Cardinal Mazarin--Mazarin was apparently quite fond of luxury goods--always a good thing; when he was on his deathbed surrounded by his expensive goods, he intoned, "To think that I have to leave all this behind," or something to that effect.

Jon,

You beat me to it.

Firstly, everyone in a leading position has to be per definition, ruthless and also corrupt and at least a bit of a hypocrit- those are simply the rules of the game. Secondly I have not known any leader great or not personally so in the end could not say how accomplished a person he was. (Thou shall not judge and all that.)

Judging from the historical records I like Alexander III of Macedonia for his charisma and utterly crazy visionary delusions, emperor Nero for feeling a closeness of character and maybe Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar...as well as Catharina di Medici..

p.s. Kleomenes III was also cool: the last Spartan king of any worth, btw...

Bumpy Johnson
Malcolm X
Lyndon Johnson
Gandhi
Pope John Paul
Mandela
Cab Calloway
Robert H. Prince, Jr.-author of "Foot prince in the snow"

Caractacus, Boudica, Hannibal, Zenobia & Spartacus.
Bloody Romans.

Genghis Khan


Lincoln was in no way a great President as the history books would have you believe. He had some very very big flaws in his Presidency, but since no one was alive back then no one bitches. They say it's human nature to think the past was better than it actually was, good or bad, and I think that's the case with Lincoln.

Napoleon I
Brasidas
Hadrian

I've given this question a lot of thought, especially now that I'm finishing up my polisci/history degree. I've come to:

Cyrus the Great
Churchill
..and Captain Jean-Luc Picard.


Yes, I'm serious about the third one.

lol....Bumpy, if we're naming gangters, the thread got that much more interesting.

I didn't want to say it......but I understand that everybody has their own opinion.