What was wrong with 2016? Well at least it is coming to a close and various year end lists and polls are appearing. One of them is Gallup’s most admired person poll.

Since 1946 the Gallup organization has conducted a poll of Americans asking them which man or woman in the world they admire the most. Perhaps the good news for Democrats stung by the recent election is that for the ninth year in a row President Obama was the one found to be most admired. Hillary Clinton was named the most admired woman. The poll conducted Dec. 7-11, 2016, was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Obama won with 22 percent of the vote. Trump came in second with 15 percent, Pope Francis was third with 4 percent and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came in fourth place with 2 percent of the vote.

Obama has the second-largest number of first-place finishes among men. The first place goes to former President Eisenhower, who was named Most Admired Man 12 times.

On the female side, Americans named Hillary Clinton their Most Admired Woman. It was her 15th consecutive year at the top spot, and her 21st time overall at the top of the list, a Gallup record.

First lady Michelle Obama came in second among the most-admired women, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. 

Not sure what value any of this has in the bigger scheme of things but given the grim year coming to a close maybe it offers a wee bit of a bright spot.

The not-so-good news is President-elect Trump was only seven percentage point behind Obama. So what was wrong with 2016?