Bush More Popular than Christ!

America is an odd country with such a dichotomy of views. At the end of one spectrum, US President George W Bush was named as villain of the year in a survey. In the same survey, he was hailed as hero of the year, beating even Jesus Christ in the ranking.

Bush was named as a hero although he had earned the wrath of many for ordering the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The unprovoked war led to the downfall of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who has since been tried and sentenced to hang. According to AFP, Saddam may be hanged as early as today to help stem any further insurgency that has rocked Iraq in recent days following the verdict.

Despite his chequered past, Saddam put up a brave front and offered to sacrifice himself when he got the death sentence earlier this week. Jesus, of course, had sacrificed himself as well for humanity.

What's Bush's sacrifice?

Villains and Heroes
AP Poll By The Associated Press

Demographics and details from the AP-AOL News poll on Americans' attitudes about who were the biggest heroes and villains of the past year. The poll was conducted by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

OVERALL: In a testament to how divided Americans are about their president and how strongly held those opinions are, George W. Bush earns two titles in the latest AP-AOL News poll: villain of the year and hero of the year. The poll asked adults to name a famous person to be named the biggest villain of the year, and allowed respondents to pick any name. 25 percent of adults picked George W. Bush as the biggest villain of the year. The poll also asked a similar question asking respondents to name a famous person as the biggest hero of the year, and Bush received the largest number of mentions, at 13 percent of all respondents.

VILLAIN OF YEAR: Bush was the choice of 43 percent of Democrats for villain of the year, higher than the 27 percent of Republicans who chose Bush as their hero. Bush was far ahead of any other figure in the race for villain of the year. The runners-up were Osama bin Laden, who earned just 8 percent of mentions, Saddam Hussein, at 6 percent, and the president of Iran with 5 percent of mentions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il rounded out the top five with just 2 percent of all mentions.

HERO OF YEAR: In the race for hero of the year, Bush won by a smaller margin, with the troops in Iraq coming in second place with 6 percent of mentions. Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama and Jesus Christ rounded out the top five with 3 percent of mentions each. Older adults were more likely to name Bush as hero than younger adults. Those 35 and older, 16 percent, were twice as likely as those under 35, 7 percent, to name Bush as hero. Fully a quarter of white evangelical Christians named Bush as hero, more than all Protestants, 18 percent, and Catholics, 12 percent.

Analysis by AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor Tompson