First Couple Top Annual List of Most-Admired Americans
WASHINGTON — Americans asked to name the most admired man of 1998 chose President Clinton, despite his impeachment in the wake of a sex scandal, a Gallup Poll showed Thursday.
The most admired woman was First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
According to the poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, Clinton was listed first or second on the most-admired list by 18% of those queried, far ahead of the second person on the list, Pope John Paul II, who got 7%.
That rating for Clinton was up from 14% in 1997, before word of his affair with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky monopolized the news. Behind the president and the pope were the Rev. Billy Graham and basketball star Michael Jordan.
Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, who conducted the investigation of Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky, was most admired by 1% of the public, putting him in 13th place, tied with civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and others.
The president also led the poll in the five previous years, and his wife has done so intermittently.
The results were based on telephone interviews with 1,055 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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