Poll Says Clinton Is Man Most Admired
By Americans
01:42 p.m Dec 31, 1998 Eastern
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton in
1998 was the man most admired by Americans and
his rating was four percentage points higher than
before the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal broke, a
Gallup Poll showed Thursday.
According to the poll, conducted Monday and
Tuesday, Clinton was listed first or second on the
most admired list by 18 percent of those queried, far
ahead of the second person on the list, Pope John
Paul II, who got 7 percent.
That rating for Clinton, who has led the poll each of
the last five years, was up from the 14 percent in
1997 before word of his affair with the former White
House intern monopolized the nation's news.
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was the most
admired woman with 28 percent, twice what her
rating was the year before. She too has led the list for
the past five years.
Behind the president and the Pope John Paul II were
U.S. religious leader Billy Graham, with 5 percent,
and basketball star Michael Jordan, with 4 percent.
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who conducted
the investigation of Clinton's relationship with
Lewinsky, was most admired by 1 percent of the
public putting him in 13th place, tied with civil rights
leader Jesse Jackson, former Republican presidential
candidate Bob Dole, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair and Norman Schwarzkopf, the general who led
U.S. forces in the Gulf War.
Twelve percent picked a friend or relative as the most
admired.
Among the most admired women, entertainer Oprah
Winfrey finished in second place far behind Mrs.
Clinton with 8 percent.
Following her were Elizabeth Dole, head of the Red
Cross, with 6 percent; former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, with 4 percent, and former first
lady Barbara Bush and Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, with 3 percent each.
The poll was conducted in telephone interviews with
1,055 adults and had a margin of error of 3
percentage points.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. |
