Political, religious leaders among most admired men in U.S.

Political and religious leaders dominate the list of men who are most admired in the U.S., according to a random phone survey of more than 1,000 U.S. residents.

What man that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most? And who is your second choice? was the question posed to 1,019 U.S. residents in a Gallup/USA today poll conducted between December 10-12. A similarly worded question about women resulted in predominantly politically related picks.

Among the political leaders, men holding the office of U.S. President were most frequently named. President Barack Obama had 22 percent of the pick; former President George W. Bush was at 5 percent; Bill Clinton was at 4 percent; and Jimmy Carter had 2 percent.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela had 2 percent.

Among religious leaders in this year's poll there was a tie. With 2 percent were both the head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI and Evangelical Christian Rev. Billy Graham. Buddhist leader The Dalai Lama had 1 percent.

Also included among the ten was businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates with 2 percent and media personality Glenn Beck with 2 percent of the vote.

The poll asking about the most admired men has been conducted by Gallup since 1946. One asking about the most admired women began in 1992.

In this year's list for women, figures in politics or related to politicians were among the top 11.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had 17 percent of the vote; former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, 12 percent; First Lady Michele Obama, 5 percent; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 2 percent; British head of state Queen Elizabeth, 2 percent; former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 1 percent, Burmese politician Aung san Suu Kyi 1 percent, former First Lady Laura Bush, 1 percent; former First Lady Barbara Bush 1 percent.

In areas other than politics was media personality and business mogul Oprah Winfrey at 11 percent, and actress and humanitarian ambassador Angelina Jolie at 1 percent.

In this year's survey, the margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points, according to Gallup.