Hillary's Rank on Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women Drops

Is Hillary Clinton less powerful now than she was as a senator? Forbes Magazine's list of the 100 Most Powerful Women indicates she is. ABC's Kirit Radia notes that in 2004, Forbes ranked then Senator Clinton at number 5. In this year's list, released last week, Clinton comes in at number 36, immediately after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the list - an honor that Clinton's predecessor, Condeleezza Rice, held twice. Michelle Obama came in at number 40.

According to Radia, Clinton's ranking has been slipping for years (2005: 26, 2006: 18, 2007: 25, 2008: 28.) But now that she is America's top diplomat, this year's drop seems particularly surprising. Forbes takes into account the size of the organization each woman is responsible for in its rankings. The State Department is a significantly larger organization than a Senate office. Its 2010 budget is $16.4b. Clinton's power within the department is arguably more potent than as a single senator in a body of 100. Perhaps the explanation is Clinton's relative quiet in the news media, which is another metric Forbes uses to determine each individual's power. Since taking office, she's given few media interviews. Clinton is hardly the Sunday morning talk show fixture that Rice was - an observation that prompted many pundits earlier this year to wonder whether she'd been instructed by the White House to keep a low profile. Whatever the reason, Clinton can be satisified that she beat out the Queen, who features at number 42, right below Oprah Winfrey.