As it does every year at this time, Gallup released its annual survey on the most admired men and women in the country. Given the political climate, this year’s results were a little more noteworthy than usual.
First up, the men.
President Bush wins as the most admired man this year in spite of his low job approval ratings. History is on Bush’s side, as the sitting president has been the most admired man every year since 1981, and in 50 of the 61 times the question has been asked overall. That list of 11 nonpresidential winners includes President-elect Eisenhower in 1952 and former President Eisenhower in 1967 and 1968. The last nonpresident to come in first was Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Bush wins despite just 10% of Americans naming him, which is two points more than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, receives. That score is Bush’s lowest in the seven years he has been named most admired man, and the fact that it is enough to win suggests that no dominant male personality has captured the public’s admiration this year.
Given his dismal poll numbers, I’m a little surprised Bush came out on top — I’d like to ask these respondents a follow up: what, exactly, do you admire about him? — but it appears the current president pretty much wins the honor every year.
It’s far more interesting that Bill Clinton came in second. I’m frequently surprised when I see the media speculate about whether the former president’s presence on the campaign trail will help his wife’s presidential ambitions. Results like these should make the answer pretty obvious — seven years after leaving office, Clinton is still very popular.
Also noteworthy, Al Gore came in third, and Barack Obama came in fourth. In other words, three of the top four most admired men in America are leaders of the Democratic Party. That’s not bad.
Next up, the most admired women.
With 16% of total mentions for most admired woman, [Oprah] Winfrey had her strongest showing to date in the current poll. But Clinton also had a stronger-than-usual score in 2007 — the 18% who mention the former first lady is the highest since 2000 (19%). Clinton’s best performance was in 1998, when 28% said they most admired her, just as her husband was being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in the Monica Lewinsky matter.
Winfrey has now finished second on the most admired woman list every year since 1997 with the exception of 2001, when she was third (to Laura Bush and Clinton). During that time, she has come within two percentage points of Clinton for the top spot on one other occasion (2004) and within one point on two occasions (2002 and 2005).
I’ll admit that I’ve haven’t been following this annual survey too closely over the years, but I more or less assumed that if the President was almost always the most admired man, his wife would probably be the most admired woman. Indeed, throughout the 1990s, that’s why both Clintons always came out in the top slot.
But it appears Laura Bush maintains a lower profile, and doesn’t score as highly. Condoleezza Rice was third with 5%, followed by actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie and the First Lady, who had 3% each.
And just to dig a little deeper, there were partisan differences in the results. Among Dems, the most admired men were, in order, Clinton, Gore, and Obama. Among independents, it was Gore, Obama, Clinton. Among Republicans, it was W. Bush, Billy Graham, and H.W. Bush.
For the most admired women, Dems backed Clinton, Winfrey, and Jolie. Among independents, it was Winfrey, Clinton, and Rice. And among Republicans, it was Winfrey, Rice, and Clinton.
I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about all of this, but I found the results interesting.