Americans love and hate Bush, Clinton

By MARSHA MERCER

MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — We have proof once again of Americans’ weird love-hate relationship with politicians. Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush, arguably the most disliked woman and man in America, are also the most admired.

The senator from New York and the president won the “most-admired” titles for the sixth straight year, the USA Today-Gallup Poll reported last week.

How, you ask, could this happen? Only about one-third of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing, and Clinton has the strongest negatives of any presidential candidate.

Partly, it’s the way the question is asked. Think of an open-ended pop quiz with all the pressure of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”

Every December, Gallup’s pollsters take to the phones and surprise harried Americans in the throes of the holiday season by asking which man and woman “living today in any part of the world” they most admire. About a thousand adults responded to calls Dec. 14 to 16.

You can imagine Mr. or Ms. America thinking, “Wow, anyone living anywhere in the world? I should be able to answer that.”

But in this cynical age, admiration is not a condition we actively cultivate. We’re more likely to get angry than to admire. The meek may inherit the Earth, but the mean-spirited get on TV. Razor-toothed partisans make a good living chewing up the other side. Nobody ever got rich saying something nice, except maybe Oprah Winfrey.

As candidates campaigned in Iowa before Thursday’s caucuses, Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation when she lambasted President Bush. Republican candidates can count on cheers and applause whenever they blast Clinton.

What’s a citizen to do when a pollster asks which woman and man on Earth he or she most admires? Put on the spot, Mr. or Ms. America may refuse to answer, name a friend or family member or pick a famous name. Clinton and Bush pop to mind.

No wonder we have a Bush-Clinton-Bush-possibly-Clinton presidential dynasty. Many Americans can’t remember when someone with another name was president.

No consensus

The Gallup organization has been asking the “most admired” question since 1948, and the president almost always wins. This year, Bush was the pick of only 10 percent — the lowest of his presidency. That he or anyone can be the “most admired” with such pitiful support indicates how far we are from consensus. Six years ago, 39 percent of those surveyed named Bush as the man they most admired.

This time, crowding Bush were three Democrats. Former President Bill Clinton was named by 8 percent, Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore by 6 percent and presidential hopeful Barack Obama by 5 percent.

Hillary Clinton was cited most admired woman by 18 percent. She was only narrowly ahead of Oprah Winfrey, named by 16 percent. Winfrey, of course, is backing Sen. Obama of Illinois for president.

Other admired women were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with 5 percent, and first lady Laura Bush and humanitarian actress Angelina Jolie, tied at 3 percent.

In the presidential race, no candidate in either party is close to a majority. A candidate who is actually hated by many Americans could win the nomination and conceivably the election.

Interestingly, Obama, who talks of bringing people together to make change, is portraying himself as Bill Clinton’s political heir.

Reminding Iowans that in 1991 another presidential candidate was attacked for lacking experience, Obama said, “He said, you know what, there’s a wrong kind of experience and a right kind of experience.”

And, like Clinton, Obama says his experience is rooted in the real lives of real people.

As for his relative youth, a drawback to some, Obama is 46, the same age Bill Clinton was in 1992.

This has been a year of surprises. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has pushed his anti-corporate message hard, making the Democratic contest a three-way race with Clinton and Obama.

Perhaps it’s telling that Edwards, a former trial lawyer, didn’t make the “most admired” list.

Hillary Clinton has lost her air of inevitability as Democratic nominee, but she is America’s most-admired woman and she has the second-most admired man at her side. Then again ... 2008’s Clinton could be named Obama.

X What do you think? Comment at www.mgwashington.com or e-mail Marsha Mercer, Washington bureau chief of Media General News Service, at mmercermediageneral.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.