As the celebrations for Darwin’s 200th birthday begin to gear up, Newsweek has decided to make sure the man doesn’t get posthumously too big for his boots.

Emblazoned across its cover this week: Lincoln VS Darwin.

Charles and Abe were both born on the same day, 12 February 1809, and that’s all the peg needed to ask who was more important. Newsweek doesn’t actually out and out declare Lincoln the winner, it does though say:

It’s an apples-and-oranges—or Superman-vs.-Santa—comparison. But if you limit the question to influence, it bears pondering, all the more if you turn the question around and ask, what might have happened if one of these men had not been born? Very quickly the balance tips in Lincoln’s favor.

This is argued on the basis of ideas similar to Darwin’s being arrived at by Wallace. Lincoln is “irreplaceable”, Darwin is not.

Unsurprisingly the blog world has had something to say about this…

The eTrilobite.com blog asks the question many are pondering: “What was Newsweek thinking?” It goes on to imagine the article’s creation before pointing out that arguing only Lincoln could have saved the United States is “history at it’s worst (besides outright lies, of course)”.

Over on Laelaps, ecology and evolution student Brian Switek gets in on the party, asking “Who is more important: Me or Michael Bolton?” He also takes issue with the accuracy of Newsweek’s Darwin.

“There is nothing as egregious as saying Darwin converted on his deathbed or anything of that sort but there are many small errors that add up to little more than some rehashed textbook cardboard,” says Switek.

Nate on the slightly expletive-prone Science Gone Mad blog details how he was not allowed to comment on Newsweek’s website. His blocked comment starts thus, “I think that this is simply an asinine comparison.” And ends thus: “Seriously, Newsweek … epic fail.”

PZ Myers is similarly unimpressed.

Biologist Larry Moran thinks Newsweek is biased towards the American, noting, “In fairness, if you only consider the United States of America, then the answer might be correct. Darwin’s ideas do not have much influence there.”

Want more fights? The Skepchic blog has declared Benjamin Franklin better than Tycho Brahe, Marie Curie better than Louis Pasteur and Jane Goodall better than Margaret Mead.