Telegraphs Most Influential Conservatives In the Time of Obama

The Telegraph UK is releasing their list of the 100 most influential Conservatives, and the 100 most influential Liberals, while Barack Obama sat in the Oval Office - In the Time of Obama. The lists will be revealed, a few at a time, over the next few days, with the top 20 coming out on January 15th.

The Telegraphs says they view those chosen as "identifiably" conservative, although not "always self-described" as such (dittos Liberals).

These are not lists that rank ideological purity – the number one liberal will not necessarily be any more liberal than number 100 – but they will inevitably discriminate against centrists, technocrats, independents and fence-sitters.

The first Telegraph List covered 2007-2008. If the Conservative was on the previous list, I've put the ranking in parentheses.

The list of Top Conservatives revealed today covers Nos. 61 through 100. I've listed a few that interest me. See the Telegraph article.

Dang! Mark Sanford comes in at No. 100 (91).

Some commentary here - if Mark Sanford is still on this list, what a waste of space. How about Senator Jim Inhofe, who has been a true thorn in the side of Liberals and has thwarted many of their plans, mainly by speaking clearly to the press every opportunity he has. He should at the least be below the 50 mark. Of course, maybe he is. That list has not yet been released.

96) Liz Cheney (Liz is greatly underestimated at No. 96, in my opinion)
93) Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida and candidate for U.S. Senate
92) Clifford May
89) Fred Thompson
88) Patrick Ruffini - Political Strategist
87) Eric Odom - Tea Party organizer
85) Bill O'Reilly
84) Thomas Sowell
83) Lindsay Graham
82) (55) Jack Keane U.S. Army General
81) Marco Rubio - running against No. 93 - Charlie Crist for US Senate Florida
80) Michelle Bachmann - Congresswoman for Minnesota
79) Lou Dobbs

77) Joe Wilson - Congressman from S.C. - that's what speaking about Obama will do for ya' - get you on the right list!

76) (86) Jeb Bush
75) (26) James Dobson
74) (84) Ann Coulter
72) Tucker Carlson (who knew?)
70) (87) Michael Barone
69) Olympia Snowe - Senator from Maine. Dang!
67) Joe Scarborough (hardly conservative enough to be tagged a conservative)
66) (58) Victor Davis Hanson
65) (69) Erick Erickson from RedState.com
64) Chris Ruddy - founder and CEO of Newsmax.com
63) Jim DeMint - Senator South Carolina
63) (17) Frank Luntz



Some notes of interest: In the Telegraph's list of the most influential conservatives in 2007, which was published in October '07, Rudy Giuliani was No. 1, General Petraeus No. 2, Matt Drudge No. 3, Newt Gingrich No. 4, Rush Limbaugh No. 5, Dick Cheney No. 6, Robert Gates No. 7, Chief Justice John Roberts No. 8, John McCain No. 9 and Mitt Romney No. 10.