Jon Stewart has been crowned the most influential man of 2010, beating out a list of 48 others who were all described as swaying public opinion and breaking the rules amid a tough economy. The ranking comes from an annual survey of about 500,000 readers of the men's lifestyle Web site AskMen, just days before Stewart's Daily Show interview with President Obama and his "Rally to Restore Sanity" this weekend in Washington, D.C. Trailing Stewart were Microsoft's Bill Gates (#2), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (#3), and Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs (#4). Obama occupied the 21st spot, down from the top five last year. "We noticed the rule-breaking trend because it spans a lot of industries," James Bassil, editor-in-chief of AskMen, told Reuters. Bassil said the attitude could be attributed to the economy's lagging recovery and finding success on one's own terms. Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who stormed off his job and made a dramatic exit down the escape chute, came in at number 48.
What do you think? Does Stewart deserve to be ranked first? Should Obama have been ranked higher? Take our poll and post your thoughts below.
Previously: Does Wikileaks Hurt National Security?
- Check out this month's best political cartoons.
- Follow the money in Congress.
- Become a political insider: Subscribe to U.S. News Weekly, our digital magazine.

















Reader Comments Read all comments (3)
jon collette of AZ 6:36AM November 06, 2010
Jeremy of CO 9:05PM November 01, 2010
R.L. Schaefer of CA 8:21PM October 26, 2010