Swampland’s Guide to the TIME 100

  • Share
  • Read Later

TIME’s mega-list of influentials is out today and it includes a veritable panoply of political names, both luminary and less well-known:

  • Former employer Bill Bain tells a flattering office anecdote about Mitt Romney.
  • Ralph Nader, who knows a thing or two about presidential campaigns of principle, writes about kindly septuagenarian doctor turned Libertarian super-celebrity Ron Paul.
  • Uberlawyer Ted Olson explains why Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy “may be the most influential person in American life today.”
  • Ed Rendell writes about New York governor and presidential farm league prospect Andrew Cuomo.
  • Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is politically important enough in the U.S. that we got House majority leader Eric Cantor to write about him.
  • President of the last global super power Barack Obama, of whom you may have heard, made the list.
  • Online petition savant Ben Rattray is on there.
  • Newark schools chief Cami Anderson is too, written about by flame-retardant mayor Cory Booker.
  • Cardinal, Archbishop and media force Timothy Dolan as well.
  • Sandra Fluke, whom you may remember from the Rush Limbaugh contraception controversy, writes about Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.
  • Education Secretary Arne Duncan didn’t make the list this year, but he wrote about Jeremy Lin, which is more entertaining anyway.
  • Immigration reform advocate Dulce Matuz‘s story is told by Eva Longoria, whose name can earn a click.
  • Hillary Clinton, of “Texts From” fame and that whole Secretary of State thing, gets the treatment from former cabinet coconspirator Robert Gates.
  • Jeb Bush gushes about Florida Senator and Republican face-of-the-future Marco Rubio.
  • Prosecutor, Wall Street enforcer and TIME cover-man Preet Bharara gets his due.
  • And with no explicit mention of any tax proposals, President Obama writes up investor Warren Buffett.