Graham, Queen Elizabeth Extend Records for Top 10 Finishes
While Hillary Clinton has the most appearances at No. 1 by a wide margin, her total of 24 top 10 placements is well behind the leaders in that category — Graham with 59 and Queen Elizabeth with 47.
Graham has been among the top 10 most admired men every year since 1955 except for 1962, in addition to 1976 when Gallup did not ask the question. Despite that impressive record, he has never placed first, but ranked second from 1969 through 1974 and again in 1997 and 1999. Graham is now 97 and generally out of the public eye, but still this year made the cutoff for the top 10.
Queen Elizabeth, now 89, placed in the top 10 in 1948, the first year Gallup asked Americans to name the most admired woman. Unlike Graham, she has not maintained a spot in the top 10 each year, but she has still amassed 47 such appearances in the last 67 years. She, like Graham, has never won the top overall honor, placing second in 1952, 1957, 1958 and 1962.
After Graham and Queen Elizabeth, Winfrey and Jimmy Carter are the living people with the next highest number of top 10 appearances, at 28. Winfrey also never has been named the most admired woman, but she has been second or third every year since 1997. Carter was most admired man in 1977, 1978 and 1979. He last finished in the top 10 in 2013.
Implications
Hillary Clinton has set many historical standards in Gallup’s most admired woman and man polling. She has been named most admired woman 14 consecutive years and 20 times overall, both records. She ranks among the leaders in top 10 finishes but still trails a few women who rose to prominence at a young age, lived a long life, or both, including Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Jacqueline Kennedy and Winfrey.
Clinton is the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Given the prominence of presidents and ex-presidents in the most admired lists, if Clinton succeeds in her presidential bid, she would certainly continue to add to her long list of records in Gallup’s most admired polling. This would include joining Eisenhower as the only two people who have ever been named most admired man or woman before being elected president.
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