To be honest, I expected some more commentary on our Global
Elite List. After putting 50 thought-leaders on our cover that will be molding
the world for the foreseeable future, I thought more of you would chime in
about who was missing from our list, who we shouldn’t have included in the
first place and where we got the idea in the first place.
On the cover essay about the history of power, written by Jon Meacham,
there is a bit of that: “Where is Ahmadinejad?” asks one reader. Others
complained of “No Rothschilds or Rockefellers,” or our very “thorough
investigation” that forgot “Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, and Elmo.”
Of course, Elmo. Even more complained about our inclusion of Oprah Winfrey,
adding that “Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and the Clintons are merely hood
ornaments.” Someone’s obviously looking to stir up some controversy so, I
say, let’s go for it:
Who would you put in your list of the Global Elite? Who do you think is the
most influential, most powerful and most insightful when it comes to
government, entertainment, economics, academics and any other discipline you
deem important?
Leave your choices in the comments below and – as magazines
like ours seem to love to do these days – feel free to rank them.
Otherwise, I’m going to have to answer questions like this,
from one commenter: “How about Tiger Woods and Rachael Ray?”
