Like so many things on Clipmarks, I'd like to say, 'I didn't know that...'

The life of Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting read. You should pick up one of his biographies some time.

Thanks for the suggestion, jmjoness - will do...

well-known and could have certainly achieved public office, but he never once ran for a political office.

Smart move.

True bnm.
Another person who could most certainly have achieved but never pursued public office was Mahatma Gandhi; altruists never do...

They say BF despised politics.. He was an ambassador to England, and then France, for the majority of his later years though.