This is what wikipedia writes about the Fortuyn result:
"In 2004, in a TV show, Fortuyn was chosen as De Grootste Nederlander ("Greatest Dutchman of all times"[9]), followed closely by William of Orange, the leader of the independence war that established the precursor to the present-day Netherlands. However, the election was widely regarded as not being representative as it was held through the internet and by phoning in, and so easily hijacked and probably heavily influenced by Fortuyn’s supporters, who had his violent death still fresh in their minds. Also, the murder of the equally controversial film director Theo van Gogh by a Muslim for comments critical of Islam had occurred a few days before the election and undoubtedly moved many voters to bring Fortuyn higher in the ranking. It later turned out that William of Orange had in fact received more votes, although they could not be counted until after the official closing time of the poll (and the proclamation of the winner), due to technical problems. The result has therefore remained uncorrected.".
It's pretty safe to say that Fortuyn wouldn't have gotten the title if Van Gogh hadn't been murdered just two weeks earlier, but even then I reckon he'd probably have made it easily to the top 10 or even top 5... there are plenty of fools who'd have voted for him either way. Oh well, at least Willem van Oranje and Willem Drees on 2 and 3 seem appropiate as people who actually earned their place in history. I doubt Fortuyn will have a prominent place in dutch history schoolbooks 50 years from now, other than that he was the victim of the first political murder in this country ever since the brothers De Witt got lynched in the 17th century.
I'm a bit surprised by that US list too... maybe the fact that Reagan died not too long before the list was elected had some influence on it? He certainly was an icon, but it's hard to defend that he actually made a good president. Coincidentally (unless the thread starter saw it too) I saw an item on the news just today that there was a similar election held in Portugal yesterday where they voted for noone less than good old dictator Salazar as the greatest Portuguese... with more than 40% of the votes!
