A friend who edits a well know conservative business magazine is anticipating the new Obama administration. He wants to know what liberal thinkers will be influential in the coming years.

He writes:

Barry: We’re putting together a list of the 50 most influential liberal thinkers/intellectuals in America (academics, thinktankers, columnists, even politicians…) for a XXXXXX.com Opinion section slide show. I’d love to have your thoughts on some names that should be there. . . Obviously not all 50, but as many as you can muster without cursing me out!

The first few off of the top of my head are Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, George Soros, Al Gore, Barney Frank, Lawrence Lessig (Stanford), Dean Baker (Center for Economic and Policy Research).

Media: Keith Olbermann (MSNBC), Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central), Josh Marshall (Talking Points Memo), Mark Morford (SF Gate), Bob Herbert (NYT), Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury), Joe Conason (Salon),

Bloggers: Arianna Huffington, Kevin Drum (Mother Jones), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily KOS), Matthew Yglesias,

Authors: Greg Palast (author), Jake Tapper, Nat Hentoff (VIllage Voice).

And lastly, I have to add John Maynard Keynes, who remains to this day one of the most influential liberal thinkers in terms of economics.

(How could I have forgotten Bono! — Oh wait, he’s not American!)

Who else would you consider an influential liberal thinker?