Michelle Obama’s No. 3 on likable-first-ladies list

A significant number of Americans -- somewhere around a third, according to a Times/Bloomberg poll -- don’t know or haven’t heard enough to feel they know the first-lady-to-be.

The rest of them seem prepared to kinda like Michelle Obama.

A majority of almost all categories have a favorable impression -- all voters (53%), registered voters (56%), Democrats (67%), independents (50%), women (59%), those making less than $50,000 (54%) and those making more (53%).

The only groups that don’t score at least 50%: men (47%) and Republicans (38%).

This is based on a national sampling Dec. 6 to 8 of 1,000 Americans, including 910 registered voters, with a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Those with an unfavorable impression of Michelle Obama are slightly different -- all voters and registered voters (both 13%), Democrats (3%), independents, women and both income categories (13%).

Only 12% of men have an unfavorable view of the president-elect’s wife; although among all Republicans, fully 31% think unfavorably at this early stage.

As for all recent first ladies, Americans like the Bushes best -- Barbara (83%) and Laura (72%). Next is Michelle Obama, who isn’t first lady yet (53%), followed by Nancy Reagan (43%).

That leaves, let’s see, oh, you-know-who with the lowest favorable rating: Hillary Rodham Clinton (39%). She also has the highest unfavorable rating (26%).

But, to be candid, those numbers might change if the “haven’t heard enough” crowd was telling the truth.

After watching Clinton for nearly 17 years in American public life, 35% still claim they really don’t know enough about her. Yeah, right.

Pondering Bush’s new Dallas digs

You may recall the little flurry of news recently about George W. and Laura Bush buying a house in the leafy, affluent area of north Dallas called Preston Hollow.

Family moving into new digs in just a few weeks. Nice story. Sort of underlines the impending end of eight tumultuous years in all our lives.

Those who cover the president know that he’s not been in Dallas recently. So the purchase raises some featurey questions, especially for Texas media, about why the first family liked the house, how they’ll split time between there and the Crawford ranch and if, in fact, the president has ever even been on that cul-de-sac to see his new house.

According to a revealing little item over on Todd Gillman’s Trail Blazers blog, Bush was asked about it at the end of a Pearl Harbor Day proclamation signing.

Gillman, who writes for the Dallas Morning News, recounts this very brief exchange with the commander in chief:

“Mr. President. You excited about your new house in Dallas?”

“Todd, why do you care? You live in Washington, D.C.”

Ewh, we’re a little grumpy, aren’t we?

Or maybe he was kidding.

Joe the Plumber, the book

Maybe you remember Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio plumber who so sincerely quizzed a campaigning Barack Obama on a Toledo cul-de-sac that his videotaped answers about the Democrat’s tax plan attracted the opportunistic eye of Republican John McCain’s aides.

Obama, apparently thinking Joe was genuinely concerned about the tax plan’s effect on his professed dream to someday own a small plumbing business, provided a full answer that included mention of redistributing wealth.

McCain promptly took the occasion of the next debate to make Joe an instant national celebrity as the ultimate regular guy (who’s about 6-foot-2, bald and a little behind in some taxes), opining on tax policies, etc., who’d be hurt by Obama’s plan.

McCain invited him to ride the campaign bus, apparently thinking Joe was genuinely concerned about the tax plan.

And Joe got to meet Sarah Palin and speak at rallies to large cheering crowds and be interviewed lots of times like a real celeb. Perhaps that was a lot more entertaining than fixing plugged toilets. (And you don’t need a license to do it.)

Joe seemed to really like the campaign. He said he did, anyway. But now Joe’s writing a book -- or maybe a book’s being written with Joe’s name on it -- that Joe says is going to analyze the 2008 campaign and his role in it.

About time, too.

So Joe’s already out promoting himself and the unfinished book on Glenn Beck’s radio show. Don’t tell Joe, but, frankly, he’s museum-grade history as far as 2008 politics are concerned.

But he’s still out there talking. Joe admits he’s a little more educated than other people about politics. So his insights are worth more. He finds Palin to be “the real deal.”

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andrew.malcolm@latimes.com

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