George Washington, the father of the United States, was a fraud. Not really, but over the centuries we have whitewashed the shortcomings of perhaps America’s greatest president, general and citizen. He surrendered at Fort Necessity during the French and Indian War. He succumbed in a string of battles early in the Revolutionary War, including losing New York to the British. He struggled with public oratory. He was known as a poor tactician. But he obviously learned from his mistakes and became the exemplar we know today.
All of the greatest leaders in history have had forgettable or disgraceful episodes. Many of them are documented in hilarious and erudite fashion in the long-running web series “Epic Rap Battles in History,” where the likes of Shaka Zulu, Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln and Che Guevara square off to humiliate each other using inventive freestyle verse.