Arianna Huffington

A former debate champion at Cambridge University, Ariana Huffington used her powers of conviction and assertion to become one of the most influential political commentators of the late 20th and early 21st century. Known best as an author and the wife of California politician Michael Huffington, she emerged from the wreckage of their divorce to become a powerful spokesperson for the right in print and in the media. The assumption of the neo-conservative movement in the late 1990s shifted Huffington's allegiances towards the left, for which she became an outspoken supporter via her web site, The Huffington Post. The site's incisive critique of the George W. Bush administration and the right-wing agenda in general made her one of the most sough-after political commentators in American politics, a role she expanded daily through her numerous books, web coverage and television appearances.