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Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama voted most admired in 2012

As you look back at 2012, who did you most admire? Was it an Olympian? A musician? A business leader?

As you look back at 2012, who did you most admire? Was it an Olympian? A musician? A business leader? Maybe a politician?

The polling firm Gallup posed that question as 2012 came to a close, and it turns out we are quite a political bunch.

“Not surprisingly, the president, Barack Obama, wins. In fact, most of the time since 1948 when we started asking this systematically, the president has won,” says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup.

Among female contenders, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it to the top of the list for the seventeenth time. 

But Newport says political figures have not always ruled the day. In the years following World War II and the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur was the most admired man. And in recent years, business leaders Warren Buffett, Donald Trump and Bill Gates all landed in the top ten, but slipped in the ranks in 2012.

The one business person to make the top ten this year? Oprah Winfrey.

 

To see Gallup’s full list, click here.

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