Power 50: Anderson Cooper

Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Cooper has been awarded high marks for the way he has moderated presidential primary debates and town halls. His political knowledge and finely tuned baloney detector helped him cut through the rancor among Republican presidential candidates, and parse the often-narrow policy divides among the Democrats. He anchors Anderson Cooper 360deg, and this year co-wrote the memoir The Rainbow Comes and Goes with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. Their relationship is the subject of the recent HBO film Nothing Left Unsaid by documentarian Liz Garbus.