THE VENICE SUMMIT : Nancy Reagan Is the No. 1 Dream Date, Poll Shows

Members of the Reagan Administration are usually delighted when they make a good showing in an opinion poll.

But First Lady Nancy Reagan found herself in a little trouble after she placed first in a Gallup Poll that asked 400 men what woman they would most like to spend an evening with. Actresses Heather Locklear and Raquel Welch tied for second place behind the slender, 65-year-old First Lady.

The results were published during Mrs. Reagan’s visit Monday and Tuesday to Sweden, where she looked into drug abuse programs while the President took part in the economic summit conference here.

“I talked to my husband last night,” the First Lady said Wednesday on the flight back to Venice from Stockholm. “He said, ‘I’m sitting here with a poll in my hand and I think you’d better get over here real soon.’ ”

Declaring herself “flattered” by the poll results, she laughed and said, “This may be the last trip I take alone.”

Mrs. Reagan was the most oft-cited choice among all men age 25 to 34 and married men age 18 to 34.

“Mrs. Reagan projects a sophisticated charm and basic magnetism that men, particularly young men, are uncontrollably drawn to,” said a spokesperson for Fast Lane magazine, which commissioned the poll.

The First Lady said that the President also told her on the phone that he was pleased with the outcome of the summit but did not offer many details.

Poor Results in 1981

When the Reagans first came to Washington, in 1981, a poll showed Mrs. Reagan to have the highest disapproval rating of any modern First Lady. It suggested that she placed too much emphasis on glamour at a time when her husband was attempting to reduce the budget and the country was slipping into an economic recession.

In 1982, Mrs. Reagan began her campaign against drug abuse, and her approval ratings soared. This week’s visit to Sweden marked the eighth time she has examined the drug abuse problem of a foreign country. She said she thought the trip was valuable.

“I had never seen a program for pregnant mothers,” Mrs. Reagan said, referring to her visit to a government residential facility that has treated 14 addicted women just before and after the birth of their children.

“I think that’s something to look into,” she said, adding that funding for such a project in the United States would probably have to come from the private sector.

Groups of anti-American protesters, many of them denouncing U.S. policy in Central America, turned up at several of the places Mrs. Reagan visited in Sweden, and 90 were arrested.

“I didn’t see any of them,” Mrs. Reagan said. “It becomes a way of life. If it happens, it happens, and you’re not surprised. Even the Pope gets demonstrated against.”