Obama named Americans’ ‘most admired man’ for 10th straight year

Obama named Americans’ ‘most admired man’ for 10th straight year. December. 29, 2017 07:59. by Se-Hyung Lee turtle@donga.com.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama is retired from office but not from Americans’ affection. For the 10th year in a row, Americans have voted Barack Obama as their “most admired man, according to a recent Gallup poll. Incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump ranked second in the poll. Gallup said that Obama was the first former president to top the list since Dwight Eisenhower. Gallup started the annual poll in 1946.

According to Gallup and CNN on Wednesday, a random sample of 1,049 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the United States were polled between December 4 and 11. The poll found 17 percent of the respondents named Obama as the man they admired most, while 14 percent named Donald Trump. Following them were Pope Francis (3 percent) and Rev. Billy Graham (2 percent). Entrepreneurs such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were also among the high rankers.

Former U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton was named the “most admired woman” for the 16th consecutive year with 9 percent of the votes, followed by former First Lady Michelle Obama with 7 percent and talk show host Oprah Winfrey with 4 percent. Other high rankers included First Lady Melania Trump, U.K. Queen Elizabeth II, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

The latest poll clearly demonstrated the United States’ ideological bipolarization since the launch of the Trump administration. Among the respondents who identified themselves as Republican Party supporters, 33 percent voted for Trump, while just 1 percent was in favor of Obama. Among the Democratic Party supporters, 39 percent named Obama, whereas 3 percent chose Trump.