Power 50: Rachel Maddow

Photo: Chuck Burton/AP

Cue the rousing strings-and-trumpets election music! In this unpredictable year, MSNBC's Maddow has become the locus of all things politics during the network's wall-to-wall coverage. Her eponymous tentpole show focused laser-like on the Flint, Mich., lead-poisoned-water crisis, prompting national outrage, a Democratic primary debate in that beleaguered city, and a Michigan gubernatorial recall campaign.