Most admired: Obama, Clinton, and company
I suppose it should come as no great surprise that, according to a recent Gallup poll, Barack Obama is Americans’ most admired living man in the world.
Yep, that’s right—in the world. And Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman. What’s more, she’s “most admired” for the seventh straight year.
These findings may be more a function of the structure of this particular poll than anything else. When asked an open-ended question such as that, people are hard-pressed to think of an answer. They tend to go to someone they kinda like but who also has extreme name recognition, someone whose name comes to mind first.
For example, when I tried to think what my answer would be if Gallup were to ask me (alas; they never call, they never write), no name surfaced immediately. I can think of political people from the past quite readily: Churchill and Lincoln would be the first two. Artists are somehow a bit iffier, their accomplishments less obvious—although hardly less important in the larger scheme of things. I love Robert Frost’s poetry, for example, but the man (at least according to biographies) was, like most human beings, a very mixed bag.
I admire certain friends of mine who’ve accomplished a lot and are trying to do right by those near and dear, as well. But I really couldn’t respond with their names in a Gallup Poll. Artists of all stripes give the same problems I already discussed in the Frost example.
But if forced to choose, I’d say General Petraeus. What’s not to admire? He’s brilliant, composed, articulate, and effective. And this is true in an arena in which many others have tried and failed. He succeeded, and did so while keeping his head when all about him were losing theirs (sometimes literally). And for women, although I’ll no doubt be ridiculed mercilessly for this one, I admire Sarah Palin for her tenacity, courage, and ability to accomplish much in the public sphere while having an admirable personal life as well. And she certainly has the immediate name recognition factor.
Who else did Americans choose for the honors? If you go to the more complete Gallup poll results, you’ll see there’s a tremendous drop-off in percentages after top contenders Obama (32%) and Clinton (20%). 11% of respondents were with me on the Sarah Palin thing, which made her number two for the women. Margaret Thatcher is in there, hanging on by the skin of her teeth (2%; I didn’t think of her because I forgot she was still alive), although besting Ellen De Generes (Ellen De Generes??) by only one percent.
As for the men, Bush scored a surprisingly high 5% (surprising me, that is; he’s way below the usual score for sitting presidents). Also-ran John McCain came in at a paltry 3%. But at least that beats Pope Benedict, 2%, who’s tied with Billy Graham and Bill Clinton in a rather interesting troika. Alas, my man Petraeus is nowhere to be found, although generals are represented in general by Colin Powell (also 2%).
You got any better suggestions?
“if forced to choose, I’d say General Petraeus.”
The fallacy is, regarding the “poll”, that it is a “choice.”
At this point, as at most points, people are simply doing what they’ve been told.
My choice — it’s not even close, Norman Borlaug. No one ever in human history has done as much for so many people as he has.
Interesting. Obama is most admired and he hasn’t actually done anything yet.
Bugs: that makes it easier to admire him, I think. The projection onto the blank slate, and all that.
I’d go with Benedict XVI (he’s a cat guy as well as having a first-rate mind; just ask Sissy Willis) and Sarah Palin– but General Petraeus would be a close second on the Y-chromosome side.
I noticed that “none” or “no opinion” garnered 25% for second place. This kind of popularity contest is worthless, in my opinion.
It would be interesting to see how BO polled among personal trainers and body builders. At least they have had the opportunity to see what they are voting for.
It will be interesting to see what they think of Oobonga in three years. I can think of a number of factors that are going to make the economic recovery sub par, and so the very demographics that went ga-ga for Oobonga (18-30 year olds and single females) are going to be most hurt by an anemic recovery.
Same demographics are down with the AGW and the coming carbon tax regime that’s going to knock the stuffing out of the recovery.
Boneheaded “science” and even more boneheaded, vapidity about the man’s qualifications and achievements.
The kids are about to be smacked hard by reality.
FredHjr – that Oobonga thing isn’t witty.
Petraeus and Palin are certainly among my most admired public figures this year. Good choices, Neo.
Assistant Village Idiot,
Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn what you think about the name I use for that lying Marxist. I use it elsewhere and no one’s going to stop me.
The name is something I picked up when some people were commenting on the fact that he frequently used a bong pipe in his high school and college days.
Steady on, FredHjr. Take a deep breath. You might be right, but you aren’t helping the team.
FredHjr, answer me this: why are there so few heroes whom we COULD admire? Why is the Baby Boom turning out so few leaders?
And as long as I’m voting, I’ll vote for Palin: she has guts.
Oblio,
O.K. Here goes. Even though I do not agree with his stands on some issues, and he is not really a conservative Republican, on the merits of what he endured for five and a half years inside North Vietnam, I am going to say I admire John McCain. While he bled for his country at the hands of his Communist captors, Oobonga and his Marxist cohorts bleed this country.
Sen. Obama cannot ever hold a candle to John McCain. He’s not fit to carry John’s jockstrap, to put in the parlance of the troops (I’m an Army vet). McCain has done something with his life and has accomplished things. He knows what combat is like. He knows what real fear is.
Sarah Palin is a good choice too. And Sen. Obama is not even a fifth of the man President Bush is.
Oblio,
And now to answer your other question, about the assumption that there are so few heroes among my generation, the Baby Boomers…
I’m reading a book right now, “To The Limit” by Tom A. Johnson. It’s about a kid who was an Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam. It’s all about his 12 month tour over there in II Corps, flying choppers in the An Lao Valley and Central Highlands. His story is full of quiet heroes. You will find another book full of heroes in “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” by Ret. Army General Hal Moore. One of them survived the Ia Drang Valley battle, only to die in the World Trade Center on 9/11/01: Rick Rescorla. In Vietnam he was a young 2nd Lieutenant leading a platoon of Air Cav troopers. My wife has a deceased cousin who passed away back in October of 2005 who flew recon choppers in I Corps out of Da Nang and was shot down in Indian country, hunted by the NVA for hours, the Army colonel he was ferrying was killed in the crash, and Mike had the enemy come within feet of where he was hiding in the brush and the mud. He was out there for almost two days before he was finally rescued. He earned the Bronze Star for Valor. Mike is a hero to me.
My generation of Americans is a generation at war with each other over the meaning of America, its history, and what our commitments should be. A large minority of us sided with the Communists and still harbor some form or other of sympathy for Marxist ideology. I myself spent ten years of my life aspiring to be a Marxist intellectual before I broke with it in 1987. I did not begin to learn the truth about the worthiness of our cause until the Nineties, and then I was white hot with anger over how the Left had deceived us about that war. Now, I could give a damn about their excuses or how they rationalize the way they did the country and our armed forces harm during that war. I never wanted to see it repeated again, but sadly that too has come to pass.
Why are we turning out so few heros?
1. We gave our allegiance to football players and actors, instead of real people making real sacrifices – and with that we gave our view of reality over to make believe.
2. We destroy anyone who reaches a level of success that might be heroic. Even someone who is popular today will be ridiculed by the fickle public tomorrow – The old saying, the higher the monkey goes up the tree the more his ass is exposed may hold true for The Obama, who is by no means heroic. (If he is to be admired, it is because he is a cutthroat politician, take no prisoners, kill your opponent kind of thing.)
3. When you see someone with John McCain’s record ridiculed, his service pushed aside, his suffering denied – perhaps that fickle quality again, but more because we seem to have lost that capacity for appreciating what is REAL.
Just my take. we are so insulated from reality. We no longer have to fight for our food or our survival. We hold disdain for tradition and the values that were our bond.
In part we are nostalgic for that which was, and thus too easily duped and led astray by someone like The Obama team.
I shouldn’t say ‘we’ because I don’t put myself in that category, nor do I believe most of the people here are in that category, much to my delight when I come here and find REAL people :). But alot of ‘us’ in this nation have lost sight of what is real.
American Power tracked-back with, “George W. Bush: Moral Clarity Against Evil”:
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-moral-clarity-against.html
Gag…
I like your picks
McCain should get more credit as well
Link- http://neosun.blog.com/
I vote for Norman Borlaug, as well. Incredibly, hardly anybody knows about him.
FredHjr,
I stand corrected. There are thousands and thousands, but their names are not as well known as they should be.
That “The Chosen One” and “The World’s Smartest Woman” can only poll a paltry 32% and 20% respectively speaks volumes. I’d say it’s about as useful as, oh, say….approval ratings.
Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham is a hero by anybody’s measure.
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/257227.html
Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham
22, of Scio, N.Y.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Twentynine Palms, Calif.; died April 22 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md., of injuries sustained April 14 when he used his body to shield comrades from a grenade explosion in Husaybah, Iraq. He will receive the Medal of Honor.
Never Submit!
لن استسلم
ABS
Since I have long since ceased being a leftist I can admire someone with whom I disagree and thus I’d certainly list Sarah Palin. Modest background, unlike Princess Caroline, tough, smart, abmitious, managed to raise a large brood without the help of nannies and such, and withstood opprobrium far beyond anything reasonable or appropriate. She wouldn’t have been my choice for v-p but I’ll be watching her with keen interest in the next few years.
Undoubtedly McCain is a genuine hero–service record speaks for itself and seemed to take being a U.S. senator seriously, genuinely thinking mostly about what was good for the country.
I have been thinking about Brooks Robinson since I happened to meet his daughter and grandson at Costco the other day. Not only a great athlete–I can’t count the number of Tiger rallies he snuffed out with his glove–but by every account decent, honest, involved in his community, and I’ve never heard a bad word about him.
There are no doubt many genuine heroes in Iraq right now but somehow the media don’t seem to get around to reporting on them. But our men and women who do their jobs over there, who are doing their best to make a decent society out of what was one of the world’s most brutal tyrannies, and who ask for little thanks and get less–yeah, I’d call them heroes.
Dick Cheney. The mere mention of his name tends to make heads explode at PuffHo and DailyKrass.
Donald Rumsfeld. Yes, he should have been replaced sooner, but it was he who bulldozed a very reluctant military into the initial success in Afghanistan. The subsequent conquest of Iraq owes a lot to him too. If the the two occupations went south, there were a lot of people to blame in addition to him. No hero is perfect.
And for women, although I’ll no doubt be ridiculed mercilessly for this one
Not from the Jacksonian wing of the Republican alliance, Neo.
From my sources, Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney both didn’t want to occupy Iraq in any shape or form.
There is something wearisome about the title “Most Admired X in the World” that I don’t want to play, but I must say that President Bush, for all his limits, has gone much higher up on my list than I ever expected. His steadfastness in the face of terrible odds and vitriol is a profile in courage, to steal a phrase.
Some years ago, Lew Puller, Jr. and Kurt Cobain both committed suicide in the same month.
Only one got the ink.
Gen. Petreus and Gov. Palin are greatly deserving of admiration.
The practical worth of Borlaug’s contributions are undeniable and thus perhaps most deserving.
Heroism however is not strictly a case of physical bravery but rather a condition wherein one does the ‘right’ thing.
‘Right’ being defined as what one personally believes to be the morally correct choice or action. And when, making that choice or action will likely result in a negative ‘cost’ to one’s person.
There are more than a few Americans to admire:
Bill Cosby, for speaking truth to the black mind-set of entitlement.
Producer David Zucker & Actors Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Leslie Nielson, Dennis Hopper, James Wood, etc. for making a movie that challenges Hollywood’s liberal bromides.
Victor Davis Hanson and David Horowitz for challenging academia’s liberal theologies.
Dennis Prager for clarity of insight and intellectual honesty, even when that doesn’t support his thesis or conclusions.
IPCC Scientist John R. Christy and the many other scientists who have risked professional opprobrium to speak out against Climate ‘change’ hype and misinformation.
I could go on but so can any of us after but a bit of thought…
America is still the home of the free and the ‘brave’.