Obama, Clinton: 'Most admired'

by Mark Silva

Talk about honeymoons:

One in three Americans surveyed call President-elect Barack Obama the most admired man living anywhere in the world - ranking him atop the Gallup Poll's annual Most Admired Man List.

Couple this with the fact that Gallup's daily measure of public confidence in Obama's promise as president is holding steady at 66 percent through some rough times, and the incoming president would appear to be riding a wave of great expectations.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, Obama's designee for Secretary of State, tops the Most Admired Woman List, albeit with a rating of 20 percent.

"No one comes close to matching Obama in percentage mentions on this year's list of most admired men, '' Gallup reports of the findings of its survey conducted Dec. 12-14. President Bush held a somewhat higher rating on this scale in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but nothing close to Obama's standing before election.

By contrast, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin makes a strong showing in second place for Most Admired Woman, garnering 11 percent of all mentions,'' Gallup's Lydia Saad notes.

"The 32 percent of Americans naming Obama as the man they most admire is extraordinarily high, nearly matching the 39 percent of Americans who named George W. Bush in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks,'' she notes.

"At that time, Bush's presidential job approval rating was a soaring 86 percent. It is also higher than former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush received in any of their appearances on Gallup's Most Admired Man list.

But Obama is the first president-elect since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 to top the list. And he has done it with a runaway high figure. By comparison, Bush was named by just 5 percent of Americans in December of 2000. In December of 1992, President-elect Bill Clinton ranked second behind outgoing president George H.W. Bush, with 15 percent. And in 1988, then President-elect Bush achieved third place, with 9 percent.