Thomas Jefferson

Last week I started my most over-rated Presidents list. They're all pretty popular guys, but that makes sense. You can't be over-rated unless a lot of people like you. Now we're up to number one in our countdown - Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson is a creep. He used to write terrible things about people and send it to newspapers, only he would do it annonomously or write it with a fictitious name. He owned slaves. I know other Presidents owned slaves, too. However, they weren't on record stating that, "All men are created equal". At least they had the decency to say, "I'm better than you. That is why I get to enslave you and make you do what I want." Not OK, but at least it's not hypocritical. I won't even bring up the Sally Hemmings thing. Let's just agree that's probably another minus.

During the Revolution he was governor of Virginia. When his capitol was attacked by the British, instead of defending it, he ran away. During the revolution he did write the Declaration of Independence. OK, I grant that was a nice job. He wrote a nice opening, but it goes downhill after that. Did you ever read the whole thing? I didn't think so. No one has.

What did he do as President? The Louisiana Purchase. Big deal. Napoleon needed money and was looking to unload it. If I happen to be in K-mart while something goes on sale, and I buy it, I don't really deserve a lot of credit for that. Napoleon sold it for about 3 cents and acre. The Louisiana Purchase contained what would be future states such as Nebraska, Oklahoma, the Dakotas... Even at only 3 cents an acre, I think Napoleon might have gotten the best of that deal. Jefferson also gets a lot of credit for sending out Lewis and Clark to explore the land. Lewis and Clark deserve credit for what they did. Tom, quit trying to horn in on their accomplishments. He wrote a check for the Louisiana Purchase and waved good bye to Lewis and Clark. I'm not impressed.

If you carve the nose differently you could easily change Jefferson's head on Mount Rushmore into Richard Nixon. He is much more deserving. It's not too late.