Gallup reports -- utterly buried in an article about how Hillary Clinton is America's most admired woman (not the subject of this post) -- that none other than President George W. Bush is America's most admired man. (Via Instapundit.)

That is the same George W. Bush who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue. Not his father, the mythical super-president invoked by Bill Clinton and others, who used to live there. No; it is that fellow who is such a poor extemporaneous speaker; who is so inclined to cronysim; who has done such a poor job of marketing to the American public his one historic and courageous policy, the Iraq War -- that same one.

How can this be? It is taken as a given in both the mainstream press and in any forum in which the elite express their opinions that President Bush is in fact the most contemptible person on the planet, or at least the stupidest. Nothing to admire about the stupid.

Who are these "Americans" who come to such conclusions? Where are they? Is the Gallup Organization some Cheney thing?

It's easy to write this item, and you may well blame me for plucking the low-hanging fruit. But in truth, you really do have to sit down and ask yourself just how many alternative universes we are all inhabiting. There is no way on earth that I -- who admire George W. Bush quite a bit, despite my considerable disappointment in him from time to time -- would ever imagine that he was the most admired man in America. I could not fathom that the constant barrage of snark, contempt and calumny directed at this man could not work its way so thoroughly through the populace, even in flyover country, that this could be the result of such a poll.

So yes, it is an irresistible story to comment on, because it is impossible to understate how out of touch the elites that dominate nearly every segment of American life are to what the vast majority of Americans really think and feel. And I mean that in a good way.

Cross-posted at Likelihood of Success.