Gallup Poll offers a view of 2009’s political winners and losers

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Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Sonia Sotomayor:

‘Winners.’

So say a majority of Americans asked to assess the political winners of 2009 -- with the first lady leading the list.

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed by the Gallup Poll -- 73% -- say the president’s wife was a winner in American politics this year. The secretary of state was not far behind; 70% called her a political winner.

The president (58%), however, ranked only slightly ahead of his first appointee to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor (57%). And the share of those who assess that President Obama was a loser in politics this year is greater than those who hold the same opinion of the first lady, secretary of state and Supreme Court justice.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

Political ‘loser.’’
Rep. Joe Wilson -- the South Carolina Republican who yelled ‘You lie’’ at the president during an address to a joint session of Congress?

‘Loser.’
Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, the Republican who went missing and was said by his staff to have gone hiking on the Appalachian Trail -- only to learn that the father of four was away on Father’s Day with a mistress in Argentina?

Loser.
Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia couple who crashed a White House state dinner?

Losers.
For more on the ratings, and what they mean, or perhaps don’t mean, see the report this morning from the Gallup Poll.

-- Mark Silva