Gallup published a new poll yesterday, indicating that Americans, as they have for the past 10 years, are most likely to name Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most. In a country that has made vapid celebrities standard bearers for morality this shouldn’t be surprising, but…

This, quite frankly, is puzzling to me as a naturalized citizen and someone who actually pays attention to what is going on in the world.

These are politicians and political appointees. Their “accomplishments” are limited by the Constitution and also by the bureaucracy they themselves helped create. Obama’s “leadership” resulted in the resurgence of ISIS, a sluggish economy for eight years, which he promptly blamed on his predecessor but had no problem taking credit for the resurgence of GDP growth this year, and a marked decline in American leadership and exceptionalism in the world.

Hillary Clinton? A two time Presidential election loser, who was such a horrible candidate, she couldn’t even defeat the guy who’s never held public office (but certainly had been known to buy quite a few politicians), bragged about grabbing pussy, which sent feminists into pussy-hat wearing spasms, and is now demanding the American taxpayers pay for that big, beautiful wall he promised Mexico would fund. This is a woman who compromised classified information, let down our personnel in Benghazi, Libya, and blamed an obscure YouTube video for the 9/11 Benghazi terrorist attack, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  This is a woman with delusions of grandeur so vast, she actually believed that somehow she took office along with Barack Obama in 2009.

 “When President Obama and I came into office in 2009,” she writes in her book. Really? REALLY?

But she’s the most admired woman in the world, according to Americans?

Donald Trump came in second, after Obama. Again, I’m baffled. He’s a politician, and a fairly unpopular and unorthodox one. Before that he was a businessman who bought politicians. The fact that he won the election is an indication of just how horrid Hillary Clinton was as a candidate, and how much Americans were ready for a change – true change that didn’t involve a Clinton or a Bush, and that didn’t subject them to another four years of mealy-mouthed pablum emanating from the White House.

And yet, he’s the second most admired man in the world.

Look, my point here is not to debate whether Trump is a good President. Fact is, he is my President, and he was legally elected by Americans. That’s all I need to say about this.

My point is to wonder how the hell these politicians somehow garner these accolades. Obama received a Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing other than existing and being the first African-American President (although, some Clinton supporters would debate that). Clinton, despite being an abject, corrupt, delusional failure is somehow still the most admired woman in the world.

I just don’t get it.

We hire these people to do a job. Sure, it’s a high-profile, difficult, sometimes thankless job, but frankly, most of the time, the people who apply for said job aren’t exactly the creme of the crop. Sometimes they do a decent job. None of them have been perfect. Most folks I’ve talked to voted for the current President not because he was the most qualified for the job, but because he wasn’t Hillary. That’s not exactly a high standard to achieve. That’s pretty much saying, “Look, I prefer the monkey on meth over a criminal in the White House, because the monkey on meth isn’t the criminal.”

Most Trump supporters I know (not all, but most), do not idolize Trump the way leftists idolize Obama and Clinton.  Why? Because they know these people are flawed. They know their choices are limited, so they vote for the lesser of the two evils, and keep their fingers crossed that the meth addled monkey doesn’t drive the train off the rails. Obama supporters, however, think he’s the Messiah, and Hillary supporters weep at the thought of her voluminous ass not being seated at the Resolute Desk, leading our country into MOAR big government, MOAR wars, and MOAR inane socialist policies.

Meanwhile, staggering scientific research this year is giving humanity hope for space exploration, tissue regeneration, and quantum computing, but I dare you to find a single person associated with these accomplishments whose name Americans know and who is as admired as… Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins Hospital signed its first black female neurosurgeon Nancy Abu-Bonsrah, and astronaut Peggy Whitson set three records: first woman to command the International Space Station twice, most space walks by a woman (60 hours), and woman who has spent the most time off the planet (more than 600 days).

Meanwhile Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl, who was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban in 2012 while on her way home from school and rose to prominence through her advocacy for the right of girls to receive an education, has been accepted to Oxford.

But none of these remarkable women made the list – none of them are as admired as a woman who compromised America’s national security and failed to be elected president. Twice.

It’s sad that Americans admire Michelle Obama and Beyonce Knowles more than they admire people like Glenda Gray, the South African Medical Research Council president, who has spent a lifetime fighting HIV in South Africa, or true civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.

It’s frightening that Barack Obama and Donald Trump are more admired than people like Stan Hayes, whose Operation BBQ Relief has fed nearly 1.7 million meals for disaster survivors and first responders, including during recent hurricanes in Florida and Texas, and  Kyle Carpenter, who is the youngest living soldier to ever receive the Medal Of Honor.

No, these people are not on TV all the time. They do not receive 24/7 coverage every time they sneeze, grab the wrong fork, or eat too much ice cream with dinner. And yet, a country that’s still fascinated with the Kardashians and whatever reality show happens to be on the major networks, still admires worthless demagogues and political losers more than it admires true heroes who overcome great odds to help their fellow man.

In my country of birth, we consumed what news we could, through every medium we could possibly access. Internet wasn’t exactly prevalent, and censorship limited what we could see, hear, and read.

Americans have endless choices and a limitless supply of information at their disposal, but they seem to be perfectly happy with the path of least resistance and as little effort as possible. They appear to care very little about the world, and are limited only by their own desire for knowledge and initiative.

That’s how an empty suit like Barack Obama and a two-time loser like Hillary Clinton wind up topping Americans’ list of most admired figures in the world.