Oh, I also recently learned that Monticello is the home of mac and chese in America as well. That's a man I can vote for. Poetic and eloqient, world traveler, and a man who was in touch with the arts, architecture and even the culinary heart and soul of America. Mac and cheese is my comfort food. :)

I didn't say that I believed that Napoleon and Jefferson shared ideals or friendship, quite the opposite. It was a political move, against his principles. It was no different than an arms deal, as thats exactly what both nations knew the results would be. New Orleans was ceded as without control of the Mississipi and far away from French influence in a time of war it lost its strategic value and became a net loss for the French. Napoleon might not have met his waterloo and that was a very serious danger. Our involvement in the the purchase helped lead us into the only invasion of American soil during the War of 1812, a war that was in many ways a war of aggression on our part. The road of history is winding, as is that of life. The purchase was a prescient move but it also was one that was inherently racist in its birthing of the concept of manifest destiny, which forced the native population to the wayside. It was in Americas long term interests to hold our resources and expand them and in that wat It is more simmilar than it seems at the outset to our current resource issues. Many players in history are complicit, as they are with politics of today. I am not trying to paint him as a villian, only as his role required, a shrewd politian. I would never paint Obama as much more, however I will admit I might villify McCain, only because I see danger in a continuation of the policies of our current administration. With historical parralells to the adminstrations of Mckinley for instance which entangled us in a Phillipino conflict we didn't pay off until the surpluss of the late 1990s. McCain seems to be leading us on an even worse path that we may not be able to correct if its allowed to continue. It is no accident that 92 percent of the nation now feels as though we are headed towards the wrong direction.

Well, as we know Napoleon met his Waterloo. Can we say the same for those interests now who continue to be the benefactors of the rhetoric of those who call for change? Is it truly in "America's interest', or in the interest of the corporate/military alliance at the expense of Americans? A political move from a politician. How true on all accounts.

The French 'empire' and Napoleon were a no more controversial ally than Israel, at the time in fact they were engaging in a colonial war that is contrary to the notion of American Independence and Democracy. The louisiana purchase no doubt lengthened the Napoleonic war and had Napoleon been succesfull it would have been responsible for placing a despot in control of all of Europe a despot whom we then would have been indebted to. Geopolitics is a strange game and it has stranger bedfellows. History rarely shines a light of pure motivations on any one topic or man. It was in Americas interest to take control of the Mississipi and in our interest to weaken the Brittish, and for that reason he acted against a principled stance. Its a political move from a polititan.

Well, I don't see those parallels. I doubt Jefferson would side with allowing corporations to spy on Americans, nor would he have spoken to AIPAC putting any country's security over his own.

He is a founding father, a Deist, a man who died on the fiftieth anniversary of our founding. He is almost a milestone of democracy, a forebare of its creation and a man who lived to see its potential and served as a living reminder of our commitment at its founding. He was an imperfect but eloquent man and strike me down for saying this but yes I see paralels between him and Obama. It says volumes that our founding fathers would have to hide interracial daliences and then one day a multiracial child can take on the mantle of the party of Jefferson. I think in many ways its a fullfillment of the founders egalitarian dream.

Perhaps that is why even Jefferson did not wish to be remembered as being president. It was not a job actively sought by many at the time. Seems Washington, Adams, and Jefferson were retiscent about taking it on... I think they learned they were right. And of course he was a flawed man, what man isn't? However, he stood up against Hamilton and the Federalists who were trying to overturn states' rights and were the ones who actually worked to expand the executive with the Alien and Sedition Acts which Jefferson voided, freeing all who had been arrested as a result of them. Jefferson also firmly stood by France in regards to her revolution, and I side with him on that. The French sided with and aided us during our own revolution and yet we abandoned them during theirs and instead sought to remain close to the country we actually fought the revolution to be free of all for the sake of trade and $$$$$. I also believe Jefferson made some concessions to Adams to sway votes since it took over thirty ballots in the House of Representatives before he was voted in as president. But I will say that Adams was a great man as well caught up in the times and in many ways not given the credit he deserved in many respects for his diplomacy and dedication to independence.

But having hindsight would I have voted Jefferson? He damned the media while in office after espousing the virtues of free speech, expanded the powers of the executive despite his literature on the opposite. He was a very very flawed man who considered it conscionable to have an afair with a slave while persuing policies that were injurious of the civil rights of Native Americans and Blacks. History is most unkind. Obviously his accomplishments are vast and I'd have no trouble voting for him knowing in hindsight but I'd still have some reservations about the man. It wouldn't be as enthusiastic of a vote as your own.

That being said Adams and the Alien and Sedition acts as well as his support of the Monarchy in France are offputting to me, his son however was an abolitionist to the Hilt and was the greatest scholar of his age. If only our current "monarchy" had produced a more book learned son rather than the toadying bufoon behind the resolute desk as we speak.