LIST MANIA….The Telegraph’s list of the most influential liberals and conservatives in America is now complete, and the #1 most influential conservative is…..Rudy Giuliani! Surprise! James Joyner calls the list “bizarre,” and maybe it is. Putting Dick Cheney ahead of George Bush strikes me as merely common sense, but Condi Rice? That’s a little harder to justify. And Matt Drudge at #3? Is the Drudge Report really that influential in the conservative community? Personally, I’d switch his ranking with Paul Gigot’s.
But hell, what do I know about conservatives? Let’s take a look at the liberal list, where the #1 most influential liberal is….Bill Clinton! Hillary clocks in at #4. Ouch. I thought this was supposed to a forward looking list?
But congratulations to blogosphere titan Markos Moulitsas, who, at #12, is officially more influential among liberals than Rahm Emanuel, George Soros, and Paul Krugman. (But behind Evan Bayh. Evan Bayh?)
And how did the massively influential power brokers of the blogosphere do in general? Six out of 200, that’s how. The Telegraph chose three liberals: Markos (#12), Arianna Huffington (#16), and Jerome Armstrong (#62). And three conservatives: Andrew Sullivan (#33), Erick Erikson (#68), and Michelle Malkin (#93). But they blew it. Atrios is more influential than any of them except Markos. He should have been on the list too.
Among liberals, women made up 6.5 of the top 20. Among conservatives they were 2 of 20.
Anyway, fun for the whole family. My big problem with the Telegraph’s rankings, though, is that I’ve heard of everyone in the top 40 or 50 on both lists. Frankly, there should have been at least half a dozen shadowy, media-shy, power broker types who have immense influence but that most of us have never heard of. Right? So where are they?
