Gallup: Palin comes thisclose to replacing Hillary as most admired woman

No mean feat: With the sole exception of 2001, when Laura Bush likely got a 9/11-fueled bounce, Hillary’s taken the top prize every year since 1997. Not one win for Condi Rice, America? Not one?

I thought this was the ‘Cuda’s year. Book mega-sales, her every utterance covered obsessively by the media, the darling of the conservative base — and meanwhile Hillary, her exalted position notwithstanding, has seemed practically invisible for weeks on end. How’d she do it? Here’s how:

Hillary finishes second among Republicans while among Democrats Palin doesn’t even show. Then again, Hillary’s got a much tougher field on her side of the aisle: If not for FLOTUS and America’s favorite billionaire, she’d probably crack 50 percent on the left.

The One naturally wins going away as most admired man, but check this out. It took until December 30 but I’ve finally found my favorite data point of the year:

Glenn Beck is more admired by independents than Nelson Mandela and the Pope?

• Pew: Plurality of Democrats support DOJ’s phone-records dragnet against the Associated Press while GOP, indies oppose
• “Experienced Democrats” whispering that it might be time for Holder to go
• Pelosi: These Republicans are too consumed with “evasions” to worry about the real issue, which is … jobs

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