Michelle Obama overtakes Hillary Clinton as America’s most admired woman

Former U.S. first lady, Michelle Obama, has been voted America’s “Most Admired Woman” in 2018, taking the title from Hillary Clinton who had been on the top spot for 17 years now.

This is according to this year’s Gallup survey which asked Americans in an open-ended question, to name the man and woman living anywhere in the world today whom they admire most.

Gallup first asked this question in 1946 and has done so every year since, except 1976. When this year’s survey, conducted December 3 to 12, asked 1,025 adults the same question, 15 per cent mentioned Obama as the woman they admire most.

Scoring 5 per cent, TV personality and media mogul, Oprah Winfrey came second in the annual poll, while former Secretary of State, Clinton, was third, and current first lady, Melania Trump finished fourth.

Most admired woman (%)

Michelle Obama 15

Oprah Winfrey 5

Hillary Clinton 4

Melania Trump 4

Queen Elizabeth 2

Angela Merkel 2

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 2

Ellen DeGeneres 2

Clinton has appeared in the top ten 27 times, finishing first 22 times, more than any other man or woman – including in 1993 and 1994, 1997 through 2000, and 2002 through 2017.  Clinton has finished second on three occasions, third once (this year) and fourth once (in 1992), according to Gallup.

Winfrey has never finished first, but has been second on 14 occasions, while Obama has finished second to Clinton three times once, Gallup added.

Michelle Obama is, at the moment, touring the world to promote her recently released autobiography “Becoming.”

The annual poll revealed that she was a strong favourite among Democrat voters, with 28 per cent choosing her, while Melania Trump was highly named by respondents identifying as Republicans, scoring 9 per cent.

Interestingly, former U.S. President Barack Obama was the winner among men for the 11th consecutive year while the current leader, Donald Trump ranked second for the fourth year in a row.

According to Gallup, if Obama takes the top spot again next year, he will tie with the former president, Dwight Eisenhower who won the most admired man title 12 times.

One can call the above a double victory for the Obamas, who have proven to be the most admirable people to Americans even after the presidency.

Last year, the power couple signed book deals worth at least $60 million and a production deal with Netflix worth tens of millions of dollars. They also rake in a significant amount of money from public speaking events with Obama being paid as much as $400,000 per speech.

The New York Post reports that Obama made at least $1.2 million for three talks to Wall Street firms in 2017 while Michelle Obama earns an estimated $225,000 per corporate and non-profit speaker appearance.

Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming, is a big hit globally as it’s been launched in the U.S., Australia, Ireland, South Africa, the UK, India and New Zealand.

The publisher, Penguin Random House, has said it will be published in 25 languages around the world.

Michelle invited the world to the personal lives of the Obamas in the book as she expresses her difficulties in marriage, fertility and early relationship with the man who later became the president of the most powerful nation in the world.

The Obamas are also making a fortune after the presidency and have invested wisely in their children and the future. They invested in real estate by purchasing their original home in Chicago before the presidency (at $1.65 million in 2005) and an 8,200-square-foot mansion in Washington, DC, for $8.1 million which they previously rented.

According to Forbes, the Obamas are generous givers and from 2009 to 2015, they gave $1.1 million to charity. In a few months, the Obamas can hit the billion dollar mark and join the circle of wealthy billionaires like Winfrey.

Meanwhile, Trump and former leader, Gerald Ford are the two presidents to date who did not win the most admired man title while in office, Gallup said.

Most admired man (%)

Barack Obama 19

Donald Trump 13

George W. Bush 2

Pope Francis 2

Bill Gates 1

Bernie Sanders 1

Bill Clinton 1

Dalai Lama 1

Results for the poll were based on telephone interviews and were spread across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.