Jefferson: one of the best and brightest U.S. Presidents. A giant mentally and historically. Yes, he owned slaves, and he rightfully gets dinged for that. However, he had enough good qualities and massive brainpower to make some amends. One of the greatest minds in our country's history, along with Benjamin Franklin.

Loses points for cofounding the two party system. I could see why people rated him low, he only doubled the size of the United States!

A bad president. That's why he didn't even want President written on his headstone.

Possibly our smartest President. Looses a point for sleeping with his slave, but at least it seems to have been consensual ;) Anyway, he was such a humble man, that he didn't even list President of the United States as one of his accomplishments on his epitaph. But I don't really know where people get the idea that he was some fundamentalist Christian. Run a Google search on founding father+religion and you'll find mounds of evidence showing that the guy was anything but. Several letters exist which show that he often distrusted religion, and leaned more toward Deism (as did Washington and most of the Founders, it seems).

Great thinker, not a great president. I give him higher points for his work during the struggle for independence.

A better founding father than a president, but who cares - his contributions to the nation before becoming president are huge.

Without Jefferson, there would be no United States of America. It is ironic that another great American president of our time also bore the name of Jefferson in a testament to a concept known as 'thinking.' Not only was he a Great Prez, he had the ability to be a 'Master of Many Trades.'

Made clear the importance of the separation of church and state. I wish Americans today could understand that. Faith is just that, a belief without solid evidence. We need leadership that can evaluate the information available to them without letting their faith lead them down a path that is only understood by those who share the faith. We speak poorly about Muslim people who follow their faith and their religious leaders blindly, hopefully we don't find ourselves behaving similarly.

probably the smartest man ever to sit the whitehouse.

Who cares if he did Sally Hemmings? Besides, it was only sex. That doesn't matter. Anyway, he never admitted to it, and she didn't leave a blue dress anywhere.

Thomas Jefferson was quite possibly one of the greatest thinkers to occupy the White House. He was a critical figure in the American Revolution; a strong advocate of Lockean ideas that fueled our separation from Britain. At the core of his philosophy was the belief that the government which governs closest to the people is the one that is most accountable and transparent. As President, Jefferson cut back on government expenditures and weakened the power of the judiciary. He believed that the federal government should remain concerned with trade and foreign affairs primarily. He believed in a federalist system of government, the states and localities administer their affairs in accordance with the desires of the locals. He added an extensive chunk of territory to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. This move helped remove the influence of Napoleonic France from the Americas. He took a genuine interest in exploring the West, even going as far as organizing the Lewis and Clark Expeditions that explored the interior of the Continent all the way to the Pacific. Jefferson is one my favorite Presidents, but he gets a star off for his weak response to attacks on our neutral ships by Britain and France, who were at war during the early 1800's. He reacted by using diplomacy and an embargo and non-importation act. Jefferson wanted to prove the value of neutral trade to the British and the French. It really ended up hurting us, products were left rotting on docks up and down the Eastern seaboard. Merchants attempted to dodge the embargo by trading with both France and Britain. New Englanders truly resented this, being that trade was their livelihood. Most saw this as a Virginian trying to destroy their lives. The lesson that we constantly fail to learn is that unilateral embargoes never work. When a cartel, or a group of countries, embargo against another country, like what happened with South Africa a few years ago, you usually get the concessions you want. But on the balance, Jefferson was a good President. I would argue however that his Presidency wasn't the greatest contribution to this country he made.

The most innovative thinker of the early days of our country. If only our country would listen to Thomas Jefferson's interperetation of the Constitution, we wouldn't have all the social spending we have today. A true believer in independence.

Jefferson was a true believer in modern democracy, but the failed and costly Embargo and the fact that he was a slaveowner tarnish his presidency and himself.

Despite being so instrumental in declaring America's independence to the world, Jefferson, as President, had a mixed record. On the positive side, Jefferson took advantage of an oppurtunity to double the size of our nation by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France, thus creating the dream of Manifest Destiny (the idea that someday the United States would stretch from sea to shining sea). Considering the amount of land we got at such a low price, Jefferson was wise to make the deal. Despite this purchase, the national debt under Jefferson decreased from $80M to $55M, no doubt due to Jefferson's advocacy of a limited government. Furthermore, Jefferson was wise in calling for the repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were no longer needed to protect U.S. national security. Jefferson also reduced the size of the federal bureaucracy, and his belief in a limited government should serve as an example for today. However, despite doubling the size of our nation and reducing the national debt, Jefferson had substantial faults as President. In response to continued British impressment and harassment of American ships, tensions arose. Jefferson, rather than advocating the use of force, attempted to impose economic sanctions on England, and believed that this would force England to stop harassing American ships. The Embargo Act, which banned trade with all of Europe, devastated the economy, and in the end, hurt us more than it hurt them. The Non-Intercourse Act of 1808 banned trade with only England and France. The harassment of American ships at sea continued and the crisis was left to Jefferson's successor to deal with. In the final analysis, while Jefferson was very instrumental in American independence, he did not fulfill his abilities as President of the United States.

CONFIRMED hypocritical slave raping bigot.Better identified by his foreskin than as a forefather. Known for this great quote in the Declaration of Independence...We hold these truths to be self evident...that all men are created equal (but first I'll enslave them, beat them, lynch them, and rape their wives and children because I can). That is how the phrase goes...right, Tom?

Yes, he owned slaves. Yes, he impregnated Sally Hemmings. Yes, he was a flawed man. But what a mind. To quote the Ken Burns film, Jefferson is the "American Sphinx" His character and intellect cast a gigantic shadow over every other president. You can quibble about his philosophies, but there was no greater pure intellect who held the office of the president.

TJ was truly the first GOOD president. He was good at everything he did, actually; definitely the American counterpart to da Vinci. Helped launch the expansion of this country, and relatively peacably, too.

He was a smart man and did a very good job as president...but when he had children with that slave and denied they were his children...thats pretty bad...he loses a star for that

He was smart, a great leader and true polition of the peopel.

Jefferson was effectively the father of the Declaration of Independance. Had his clause regarding the introduction of slavery to the colonies by Great Britian not been voted out of the Declaratiion, we might have had fewer problems later.

Jefferson was a great philospher and a progressive thinker. Too bad he forgot his republican ideals once he arrived at the White House. He did a slightly above-average job as president, though (except for that whole embargo thing). I bet Madison wasn't too happy with the mess he left for him, either. He was a good diplomat in international relations after his presidency, but his service as chief executive was largely mediocre.

I take one for the team to prevent the nation being split apart, and historians write me as the villain. At least Vidal got it right.

Jefferson was one of the best Presidents this country has ever known. #4 on the list...#4!? He should be at #1 without competition! Jefferson fought for everyone to have free speech (not just the government and those who agreed with the government, as some of us today would have), free religion (not just warring Catholics and Protestants) and freedome of the press (not just the conservative media). Conservatives make it sound as though all the Founding Fathers thought alike and acted alike. WRONG! Jefferson even wrote his own interpretation of the Bible, fought for the searation of church and state while (Pa)Tricky Henry fought against it. He opposed slavery and treated what slaves he had like human beings. I don't care what he did with Sally Hemings. He was a great American legacy. Take care, everyone!

He was a genius. The most intelligent president we've ever had. Overall, he was a good president. He doubled the size of our country with the Louisiana Purchase.

The man who saved civilization (so far...)

Hello - TJ is the #1 politician ever - the father of modern democracy and author of most Constitutions still in use today. "All men are created equal" - he was the first to have the balls to put it in writing.

Thomas Jefferson was indeed a brilliant man, possibly the most intelligent President in the history of this nation. However, even intelligence isn't always a safe guard against unrighteous behavior. The man was, after all, a slave holder. Some may argue that he was raised in a different time, but that is a double standard for those who would debate the validity of moral relativity. He was a brilliant thinker, one who authored our Declaration of Independence, one who championed freedom and liberty (for the select few white male land owners, of course,) and one who probably believed his statement "all men are created equal," though he himself owned slaves. A man who wrote much in his lifetime on government and politics, he is often touted as the poster boy for a number of vastly different political viewpoints. The conservatives parade him around as a critic of big government (in that he disliked the idea of a government instructing farmers on how to grow crops), but he would cast some of his writings into the fire if he witnessed the corporate special interest system as it ripped off farmers, the working class, and the poor. The liberals, on the other hand, parade him around as a champion of compulsory, publically-financed education, and Jefferson would be plum proud of the many accomplishments thereof. After all, our post high school educational system is second to none in the world. And our lower levels of education are very successful, too, though one can expect a predictable drop in performance rates when the government demands that ALL discrimination cease, thus inundating the school systems with little ones from totally uneducated backgrounds. (This is the fatal flaw in the conservative critic's contention based solely upon test score averages that public education is failing to equip youth with the skills necessary to survive.) Well, it's a safe bet to say that Jefferson helped shape our government and its flexibility to meet (or fail to meet) the demands of the times, and without him our government likely would be somewhat different. Still, I cannot rate a slave-holder too highly, and, in the final analysis, Jefferson probably would agree with me. Thanks for reading, and God bless. :-)

One of our finest leaders and a brilliant man. A true defender of democracy. And a firm believer in the "Fourth Estate".

Unlike Washington and Lincoln, Jefferson was a president that performed below his capabilities. The reason for this was that he was perhaps the most intelligent president ever - in terms of IQ. He did many great things for this nation at a critical time. He was a staunch advocate of states superiority over the federal gov't. Would take him in a second today though.

Inventor, thinker, leader. This remarkable man created the leadership we needed for a new country; expanding borders where there were none existing, strengthening the country internally and strengthening it morally (*even if not always by personal example-he did finally free his slaves). Perhaps, he could have did more while in office, and NOT just while private citizen. It pales by comparison, ONLY, because his private citizenship was so distinct. He ranks at the top of my poll... Jefferson,Lincoln,Washington,Reagan,Monroe,FDR, TRoosevelt,Wilson. .....

Invented the swivel chair.

How soon we forget. That the chief architect of our Republic should be vilified for someones petty politics is the greatest indictment I have seen yet, of the Clinton cabal.

This man defined what a country could be and should be. And William "Jefferson" (gag) Clinton wouldn't know a Jeffersonian principle if he tripped over it.

Thomas Jefferson really did not do much in office. Jefferson spent more time hitting on slave girls than making policy. He was the only president who campaigned in a year ending in "00" who's presidency started in the year ending in "01" who was not shot or shot/assassinated.

If you don't give Jefferson five stars for his eloquent advocacy of democracy, give him five stars for doubling the size of the United States when he purchased the Louisiana territory from France. Looking back, handing over something like 10 million dollars for that much land seems like the biggest bargain in history, but at the time it was extremely controversial. Jefferson had the vision and the guts to make it happen against heavy opposition. Unlike many of his colleagues, he fully understood that the future of the U.S. lay to the west. While Jefferson certainly had flaws, he was a true renaissance man with a serious interest in government (of course), philosophy, agriculture, zoology, history, and ethnography. He was especially interested in Native American culture, and when he sent Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase, he gave them strict instructions to make detailed studies of the Indians they met along the way (he also had them send back plant and animal samples that added enormously to the scientific knowledge of the time). Recently-discovered DNA information makes it fairly clear that Jefferson did indeed have an affair with his slave Sally Hemmings, but Jefferson was a widower and many historians argue that he was in love with her. Regardless of where you stand on that issue (and the facts don't support a conclusion either way), Jefferson was responsible for fundamentally shaping the government and borders of the United States, and the vast majority of his influence seems to have been extremely positive. Love him or hate him, he's a fascinating character.

Eliminated all internal taxes, ended the Federalist's "big government" schemes, and returned sanity to the nation after the Adams disaster.

Great accomplishments, but not necessarily during his Presidency.

"Obviously, one of the true hero's of DEMOCRACY and of the people as well."