Has always had the good sense to make music instead of "art" and only on rare occassions has he ever produced anything that could be deemed a flashy display of technique for its own sake.  That doesn't make him the greatest guitarist in the world but it makes him a far better musician than boring players John Petrucci or Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen.

Has the grace that lesser guitarists can only dream to aspire to

One of the greatest guitarist who ever lived, really good in his Cream days, even better after.

Clapton has haters largely because of his popularity. Hhis playing conveys much more feeling than most of the speed axes of the 80s and 90s.

Rated just as high as Jimi, Eric is our greatest living guitarist.

A legend, through and through.

Very overrated!

He's good...but he's a bit overrated. He's no Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page.

He only gets a 3 from me. His skills are very impressive to people who aren't guitarists. I've talked to a large number of professional guitarists who have kind of a low opinion of Clapton. And this wasn't mere jealousy or anything, because most of those guys gave huge accolades to Hendrix and Page. I like the blues and I like really skillful guitar-playing, but Clapton hasn't done a single interesting or challenging thing in over thirty years. He did good work with Cream but he had two exceptional musicians with him to make him sound good.

He was always great when I saw him live in the '60s, but he's produced a few too many drippy numbers since then for my taste.

Undoubtly the best of the ones listed here. :)

At the top of my list. I know that Hendrix gets the obligatory revolutionary spot at the top of every list of the best guitarists, but I would put Clapton at #1 anyway. Mostly because of his Unplugged show. If you don't own the album, buy it - it's an essential. This man can do things with a guitar that none of we mortals could ever dream of doing. Every guitarist in the world should just be praying to this guy. Listen to Layla, Wonderful Tonight and Tears in Heaven and tell me that he couldn't crush opposition underfoot any day of the week.