Bill Gates is no match for the Teflon president
Bill Gates may be the ultimate techie tycoon, but he's not the greatest American of all time.
That was the collective judgment of some 2.5 million people who took part in an "American Idol" style poll this month, which had its finale Sunday night. Gates had been short-listed to the top 100 Greatest Americans. The contest was hosted by America Online and the Discovery Channel.
Highest honors went to Ronald Reagan, cited for having "played many roles during his lifetime." The late Cold Warrior and Hollywood star was one of three presidents in the top five, along with Abraham Lincoln (2) and George Washington (4). (Reagan apparently edged Lincoln by just 0.5 percent of the vote.) The other two spots went to Martin Luther King Jr. (3) and Ben Franklin (5).
Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect did make it into the Greatest American top 25. That puts him in the company of the sitting president (but not his father), Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, Muhammed Ali, Oprah Winfrey, Roosevelts Franklin and Eleanor, and Armstrongs Neil and Lance.
Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs finished farther back with the larger pack, somewhere between 26 and 100.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
