Oh, good, Forbes has listed all the important liberals, in order of importance. God bless this new Obama era of paying attention to Times columnists again!

Number one is Paul Krugman, who is so influential that he never supported Obama in the primaries and continues to use his blog to impotently push for a bigger eceonomic stimulus plan without tax cuts. The Obama Economic Team has steadfastly ignored the Nobel-winning economist, which is why Krugman is a guy to watch this term!

Hah, and number four? It's Flat-Earther Thomas Friedman, the third-grader who somehow ended up with a successful career as a pundit and author. The Forbes summary of his importance is perhaps more correct than they realize, in a scary way:

Behind the seemingly glib sound bites lie opinions that are genuinely influential among the educated, tome-reading public and the Washington establishment.

Simple-minded powerful people enjoy the simple-minded work of this mustachioed free-trader, which is why we are doomed. At least Tommy now cares about the Global Warming, or something, apparently.

Send an email to Alex Pareene, the author of this post, at alexp@gawker.com.