Washington ? Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laura Bush and J. Lo have something in common: Americans like them.

A Gallup poll found the nation divided in the contest for “most admired” woman. Among men, President Bush remained the clear favorite for the second year in a row.

Clinton, the former first lady who now represents New York in the Senate, and her successor in the White House, Laura Bush, topped Gallup’s list of women along with talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Clinton was favored by 7 percent of those surveyed; Bush and Winfrey had 6 percent each.

Among men, the president had a commanding 28 percent for men — well ahead of the runner-up, former president Jimmy Carter, who was in single digits.

Jennifer Lopez’s new movie and album, along with heavy media coverage of her pending wedding nuptials to actor Ben Affleck, boosted her to the sixth spot with 2 percent. That put her on par with incoming Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Former first lady Barbara Bush and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher each got 3 percent.

Among younger respondents, Lopez outpolled them all with 10 percent.

Party lines had some bearing on results. Clinton pulled 15 percent among Democrats; the first lady led among Republicans, with 13 percent. They remain no match for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who won 60 percent of Americans’ vote in 1963 after her husband’s assassination.

President Bush had earned 39 percent in the wake of last year’s terrorist attacks, a record high among men since the survey began in 1948. His dip in Gallup’s 2002 poll mirrors his sliding approval ratings in the past several months.

Events also pushed up Carter’s standing, with the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner rising from just 1 percent in 2001. He was the favorite among Democrats polled.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, Pope John Paul II, former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Billy Graham each earned 2 percent to 4 percent.

The telephone survey of 1,009 adults was conducted Dec. 16-17 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Respondents were asked to name the two people they admire most.

Only one man from the entertainment world, Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington, made it into the men’s top 10. He rounded out that list along with former South African President Nelson Mandela, former Vice President Al Gore and former President Reagan.

Poet Maya Angelou and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also made the top-10 women’s list.