Midknight Review -- new and revised: Updated: Townhall.com rates the top 25 most influential conservatives and Gov Palin, after all this time, a "commoner" among professionals, still out ranks all except Rush and the owner of the #1 news portal in America, Matt Drudge.

1) Rush Limbaugh: He's the biggest right wing talk radio host in America, a generation of conservatives grew up listening to him, and he's capable of making news, killing legislation, and selling tens of thousands of books any time he opens his mouth.

2) Matt Drudge:The Drudge Report isn't just an important news site; it's an agenda-setter. If Drudge decides it's a big story, it shows up EVERYWHERE.

3) Sarah Palin: The former VP candidate has a fanatical following, regularly makes news for her attacks on the Obama Administration, and did more to get women elected in 2010 than any one human being ever has before in a single election cycle. Palin has enormous juice, but the key question is always, “What is she going to do with it? Run for office? Get other Republicans elected? Become the conservative Oprah?” Time will tell.

(Blog editor's updated notes: Think about this - Gov Palin was fired from Fox, a year ago in January. The Left celebrated her "demise" like the grade school collective of intellectuals they are. Today, this woman is back in the good graces of Fox (rehired, I believe, because Ailes simply could not ignore her popularity and rhetorical accomplishments) and is every bit as important to the conservative cause as Reagan (probably more consistent in that effort). She certainly has proven that she is no quitter AND look who she "out ranks." If this was an honorarium list, I would be "happy for her," but it is a ranking of Influentials. One does not get on this list without having earned their place. These folks are all successful in their conservative performance and Sarah Palin is at the top of the list. When you can run ahead of the likes of Karl Rove and a Supreme Court justice, you know you wield a great deal of political power. Good for her . . . . . . . . . . . good for the country . . . . . . and good for the conservative movement!)

4) Karl Rove: He's not the most popular guy with the grassroots right now after the grassroots concluded that he intends to try to strangle Tea Party candidates in the crib to clear the way for establishment politicians in primaries, but no one can deny how much power he wields. Rove may have made his bones as a strategist and a commentator, but the massive fundraising done by American Crossroads makes him a huge player when election time rolls around.

5) John Boehner: You may like Boehner or you may not, but as the leader of the only branch of government that the Republican Party controls, he has his hand on the faucet of government and can practically turn it on or off at will.

6) Sean Hannity: At this point, we still don't know what's going to happen with Sean Hannity's highly rated show on Fox that's being booted in favor of Megyn Kelly, but given that it has excellent ratings, Hannity is highly likely to land on his feet. Beyond that, he still has the 2nd largest conservative radio audience out there with 13 million listeners.

7) John Roberts: Many conservatives have justifiably soured on John Roberts after he twisted the Constitution into a pretzel to find a way to make Obamacare legal, but as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he wields enormous influence and has generally used it to help guide the court to the Right. Editor's note: Roberts has taken a lot of heat for his decision on ObamaCare, many forgetting that it was his decision to exclude the Medicare state mandated exchanges that has been primarily responsible for all the logistic issues of ObamaCare. 34 states opted out of these mandatory exchanges because of the Roberts decision, and the rest is history.

8) The Koch Brothers: In a movement where all the grassroots activists seem to be starved for cash, big donors like the Koch Brothers wield an enormous amount of influence. The level of hatred directed at them by the Left is a reflection of how much power they have, mostly behind the scenes, on the Right.

9) Ted Cruz: Cruz has been perfectly in tune with the grassroots, has worked relentlessly to move Republicans in the Senate to the Right, and has done a brilliant job of getting his name out there. So far, he's probably done the best job of carrying on Jim DeMint's legacy in the Senate.

10) Glenn Beck: Anyone who thought Beck was finished after he left Fox underestimated the size of his vision. He has 7.5 million listeners to his radio show, his website The Blaze is the 4th largest conservative news site, and The Blaze TV is incredibly ambitious. Beck might not have the biggest audience, but he has some of the most passionate fans out there.
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After notes:
Note: all comments are Townhall's except for my editorial notes.
The full list can be found here, at townhall.com

The Stated Nonsense from the Left now includes these Progressive goals:

July 2, 2008, Obama had this to say: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

MICHELLE OBAMA: "Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."

“ . . . . . . they have become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas – that people who love their country can change it.” -- Obama the Radical

On September 30, Van Jones told MSNBC "I think everybody should hold onto your seats. October is going to be the turning point when it comes to the progressive fight back."

2 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 31, 2014 at 11:54 PM
Just proves that there are NO conservative intellectuals.

BTW... Town Hall and the National Review are going down... in their entire history, it has NEVER turned a profit. Buckley estimated that the Review had lost more than $25 million in its 50 years of operation. It has never enjoyed a single moment of robust financial health competing in the “free market of ideas,” but has relied on reader contributions and bailouts from wealthy donors for the entirety of its history. It's crap and soon to be retired forever when Michael Mann wins his suit against them.
AnonymousFebruary 2, 2014 at 1:19 PM
People like Sarah Palin represent every increasing share of 'the know-nothing' branch of the GOP... particularly the 'Teavangelicals.' The vast majority of these anti-intellectual, anti-education creationists are regressive religious Republican morons who are dragging down American education and society in general. By their very nature, they are gullible, subject to lapses in critical thinking, easily led into opinions not supported by reason, bigotry, conspiracy theories, and self righteous divisiveness. These people represent a dying branch of human intellectual evolution.