FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pauses while delivering a speech after meeting Peru's President Ollanta Humala in Lima, Peru, Monday, Oct. 15, 2012.Karel Navarro/The Associated Press
She's smart. She's powerful. And according to a new Gallup poll, she's the "most admired woman" in the world.
For the 17th time in the last 20 years, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton clinched the title, beating out the likes of Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey by a wide margin, the Washington Post reports. Clinton was named "most admired woman" of the year by 21 per cent of Americans surveyed, compared with the five per cent who selected Obama and four per cent who named Winfrey. Rounding out the top 10 were former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai, Queen Elizabeth II, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
(Among men, the most admired were U.S. President Barack Obama, followed by former South African president Nelson Mandela at a distant second, former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. evangelical reverend Billy Graham.)
Clinton's popularity bodes well for those eager to see her run for president in 2016, but as The Washington Post points out, it is uncertain whether her current health troubles will hold her back.
Clinton, 65, was hospitalized on Sunday after doctors discovered she had a blood clot related to a concussion she suffered after fainting earlier in December. Officials had blamed her fainting on dehydration due to a stomach virus.
Late Monday afternoon, doctors treating Clinton confirmed the clot was located in a vein between her brain and her skull behind her right ear, according to a Reuters report. The doctors also said they expect her to make a full recovery.
But even the most admired woman in the world has her detractors. And skeptics have been questioning the timing of her health woes, as they have forced Clinton to cancel her previously planned testimony before Congress on the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
New York Post has claimed her illness "looks like one of the most transparent dodges in the history of diplomacy." A Fox News contributor also suggested she had "diplomatic illness."
Not surprisingly there seems to be a correlation between being the most admired and being attacked by critics.
Wency Leung