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Opinion: Now, a poll you might not imagine

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Even now 14 months out from the ’08 election, politics is everywhere these days. At least around this blog.

A new ERA Real Estate survey of 1,002 Americans age 50 or older asked a whole bunch of questions about baby boomers’ housing plans in coming years and their real estate habits. For instance, one in five plan to move in the next five years and 24% of those baby boomers say the main reason would be to upsize their house. Even with the kids gone.

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But the ERA folks also threw in a couple of political questions. What presidential candidate would you most like to live next door to?

First of all, it probably doesn’t matter because few presidential candidates are ever home anyway. They’re always somewhere else, meaning as neighbors things would be nice and quiet. But then the fence between your house and theirs would be electrified and there’d be all those Secret Service SUVs parked everywhere, the guard dogs running around and the snipers on all the roofs.

You could perhaps pick Mike Huckabee as a candidate neighbor because he’d always be telling jokes through the fence. Or Ron Paul because as an isolationist he pretty much sticks to himself. You wouldn’t want to live next door to John Edwards because he’d always be hawking you about poor people from one of his balconies. And, according to Michelle Obama, her husband Barack is pretty ‘snorey and stinky’ at least in the morning.

Rudy Giuliani could be good if you want to reminisce about 9/11 a lot. Or Sam Brownback if you’re short on Bible quotes. Mike Gravel doesn’t need any neighbors since he talks to himself so much. And Dennis Kucinich never stops talking period.

So who who would you pick? Well, the largest number of ERA respondents (21%) chose Hillary Clinton as their favorite wannabe-president, would-be neighbor. Funny because a new Times poll yesterday found her to be among the least likable candidates.

Coming in second (13%) was Fred Thompson, who could loan you all his ‘Law & Order’ tapes. In a tie for third place were Obama and Edwards at 12%, Giuliani at 10%, John McCain at 8% and Mitt Romney was last at 6%, probably because of the reputation for all those wild Mormon parties.

The survey found the most desirable celebrity to live next door to was Tiger Woods (24%), Regis Philbin (15%) and Teri Hatcher (8%). The least-desired neighbor for the second year in a row was Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini.

Finally, you were no doubt wondering who the most desirable celebrity real estate agent would be. Well, Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and frequent apprentice firer, was beaten out by Oprah Winfrey, the talk-show diva who likes Obama so much she had him and 1,500 of her closest friends over for $2,300 mini-burgers last weekend.

--Andrew Malcolm

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