As a gimmick* to get more visits to their website, the Telegraph ranked the top 100 most influential liberals and top 100 most influential conservatives in the United States.
Top 5 Conservatives
1. Dick Cheney
2. Rush Limbaugh
3. Matt Drudge
4. Sarah Palin
5. Robert Gates
56. Alex Castellanos
(Political media strategist; grew up in North Carolina and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill)
97. Marc Thiessen
(Republican speechwriter and long-time aide to Jesse Helms)
Top 5 Liberals
1. Barack Obama
2. Hillary Clinton
3. Nancy Pelosi
4. Bill Clinton
5. Rahm Emanuel
100. John Edwards
* Telegraph reporters divided the list into five with 20 people in each installment and published it over five successive days. The suspense was killing me.