4. Bill O’Reilly

Killing Osama bin Laden aside, President Obama’s approval numbers have continued to drop since the initial post-election honeymoon phase, and while the GOP has yet to produce a compelling candidate to challenge the man, they do have a few pundits whose voices are growing louder—none more so than O’Reilly, whose cable ratings are higher today than they were one year ago (unlike soon-to-be-ex-Fox News cohort Glenn Beck, whose numbers are worse than Obama’s). O’Reilly is one of the best known and most-watched political commentators in the country. The only knock on him is his reach, or lack thereof—he’s preaching to the choir, so to speak, while the other side of the aisle ignores him entirely. But with the GOP lacking a political face (Sarah Palin? Rudy Giuliani? Mitt Romney?), his unifying voice is especially necessary and potent, and it will only grow deeper and more resonant as 2012 grows nearer.