Gallup polls Americans on most admired politicians
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a town hall style campaign event last month at South Church in Portsmouth, N.H. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)
NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in American opinion.
On this first day of 2016, let’s look back at the people Americans most revered last year; Hillary Clinton is 2015’s most admired woman for the 14th year in a row.
President Obama is the most admired man for the eighth consecutive year.
More on most admired menThe top 10 list includes three presidents, Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; three current presidential candidates, Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Dr. Ben Carson; and three religious and spiritual leaders, Pope Francis, The Dalai Lama and the Rev. Billy Graham. The only top 10 male finisher who doesn’t fall into one of those categories is Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.
Trump has finished in the top 10 four other times, including in 1988 through 1990 and in 2011.
More on the most admired womenThe roundup features an eclectic mix of political figures — Clinton, fellow 2016 presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin; human rights leaders and Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar; and television personalities Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. Queen Elizabeth of England and Michelle Obama also finished among the leading women.
More on ClintonShe has been the most admired woman each of the last 14 years, and 20 times overall since 1993, occupying the top spot far more than any other man or women in Gallup’s history of posing the “most admired question” since the 1940s.
Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was named most admired woman 13 times during her lifetime, putting her second to Clinton.
Dwight Eisenhower has a dozen No. 1 finishes, the most for any man. Obama, the most admired man each of the last eight years, is now tied with Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan for second place among men for top overall finishes.
The presidential factor Americans usually name the sitting president as the most admired man. Eisenhower, who made his name as a military general in World War II, won each of the eight years he served as president from 1953 to 1960; the year he was first elected president, 1952; and three other years after he left office when the incumbent president was generally unpopular, 1950, 1967 and 1968.
Frequency in top 10Hillary Clinton’s total of 24 top 10 placements is well behind the leaders in that category — Graham, 59, and Queen Elizabeth, 47.
Graham has been among the top 10 most admired men almost every year since 1955, missing out only in 1962. (Gallup did not ask the Most Admired questions in 1976.) He has never placed first, however, coming in second place from 1969 through 1974 and again in 1997 and 1999. Graham is now 97 and generally out of the public eye, but still this year again made the cutoff for the top 10.
Queen Elizabeth, 89, placed in the top 10 in 1948, the first year Gallup asked Americans to name the most admired woman.
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