Hot Gallery: Check Out These Famous Commentators Before They Were Talkin’ Politics

mary matalin yearbook high school young red carpet photo

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Mary Matalin High School Yearbook Photo, 1972

Roaming the halls of Thornton Fractional North High School in Calumet City, IL, in 1972, little did Mary Matalin know that not only would she become one of the most recognizable conservative pundits in D.C., but that as the future wife of Democratic strategist James Carville, she'd become one-half of a veritable pundit power-couple.

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Mary Matalin—Today

Get ready to groan at the gross display of over-achievement: Matalin was the first person to ever serve simultaneously as an Assistant to the president and Counselor to the vice president, both of which she did during the during the George W. Bush administration. These days, Matalin is also a frequent contributor to CNN programs, an author, and editor-in-chief of a Simon & Schuster imprint. Now and then, she and Carville take time out to be profiled in Architectural Digest.

ann coulter yearbook high school young photo

Ann Coulter High School Yearbook Photo

Political malcontent. Far-right Republican. Media firebrand. Long before Ann Coulter was any of these, she was a regular, turtle-neck-wearing teen from the Northeast who was bound for college, law school, and, ultimately, the controversial spotlight of her own creation.

ann coulter yearbook high school young red carpet 2011 photo

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Ann Coulter—Today

Both a divisive figure and a darling of the far-right, Coulter incites love or hate—but rarely anything in between. Between her frequent media appearances, multiple best-selling books, syndicated column, and finely tuned skills of self-promotion, Coulter will yell until someone listens, be it about liberal wimpiness, Muslims on airplanes, or insisting that Bill Clinton should have been impeached.

bill maher yearbook high school young 1974 photo

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Bill Maher High School Yearbook Photo, 1974

Don't let the mutton chops fool you: in 1974 at Pascack Hills High School, in Montvale, NJ, Bill Maher was a future force of nature who'd soon be ready to improvise jokes and spur political rants, all with cameras rolling.

bill maher yearbook high school young 1974 red carpet 2011 photo

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Bill Maher—Today

As the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, the die-hard liberal cajoles, jokes, and pointedly pushes his guests to reveal their opinions, partisan or not. Maher stirred up the blogosphere with this incendiary comment on Anderson Cooper 360 about the 2012 Republican primaries: "My money is still on Mitt Romney. And I think he’s going to get the nomination, and then I think Obama is going to beat him like a runaway sister wife, yes, I do.”

bill o reilly yearbook high school young photo

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Bill O'Reilly High School Yearbook Photo, 1967

Long ago, before decrying a so-called War on Christmas, before casually calling major heads of state "pinheads" on national TV and yes, even before virtually saturating every available modern broadcast medium, William O'Reilly Jr. was just a dapper, baseball-playing kid from the Tri-state area.

bill o reilly yearbook high school young red carpet 2011 photo

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Bill O'Reilly—Today

Today, O'Reilly and his influence on modern political narrative are nearly inescapable. The former host of celebrity TV magazine, Inside Edition, O'Reilly re-made himself into one of the highest-rated commentators on television, where The O'Reilly Factor airs nightly on Fox News. Of course, fame is not without its controversies – the ever-pugnacious pundit has been lambasted for a host of offenses, including his denunciation of the late George Tiller, a Kansas-based abortion doctor who was murdered in 2009, as well as for lesser transgressions, such as exaggerating his working-class roots.

chris matthews yearbook high school young photo

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Chris Matthews High School Yearbook Photo, 1963

Yes, Chris Matthews was one of those precocious kids who followed national politics while you were still playing with My Little Pony. While most of us will never be professional equestrians, Matthews grew from his roots at La Salle College High School in Philadelphia, PA, to make it big inside the Beltway—eventually setting his sights (and his outsized personality) on journalism.

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Chris Matthews—Today

Matthews launched Hardball, his nightly news analysis show, on MSNBC in 1997 and more than 15 years later, it's still going strong. Alongside his nightly TV duties, the commentator has also published several books and launched the weekly Sunday program, The Chris Matthews Show. His brash approach to commentating has earned him praise and criticism from across the political spectrum: in 2005 progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America named him "Misinformer of the Year" for his misleading comments about Sen. Hillary Clinton, among others, while in 2008, he won conservative think-thank Media Research Center's dubious award for "Best quote of the year," for gushing about Pres. Obama's candidacy.

ed schultz yearbook high school young photo

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Ed Schultz High School Yearbook Photo, 1972

Before becoming a popular liberal radio and TV host, Ed Schultz was more a champion of the football field than of working-class Americans. Following his senior year at Maury High School in Norfolk, VA, Schultz went on to become an All-American quarterback for Minnesota State University Moorhead.

ed schultz yearbook high school young red carpet photo

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Ed Schultz—Today

In contrast to his outspoken, partisan counterparts, Schultz prides himself not on being a voice of democracy, but a medium for it—and his philosophy has won him an avid fan club, not to mention his own television show on MSNBC and radio show. Schultz throws his own barbs (he called Donald trump a "racist" in April 2011, over the mogul's insistence that Pres. Obama did not earn his academic success), but still manages to take a kinder, gentler, approach to political takedowns.

jon stewart yearbook high school young red carpet photo

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Jon Stewart High School Yearbook Photo, 1980

As a gangly teen at Lawrence High School in New Jersey, Jon Stewart (nee Jon Stuart Leibowitz) was already known as a class clown. It wouldn't be until years later that he got the guts up to take the stage and try his hand at stand-up. The rest, as they say, is fake-news history.

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Jon Stewart—Today

As the host of Comedy Central's fake-news program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the comedian takes aim at the national news media, politicians, and pop culture, weaving events of the day and interviews into satire and punchlines. Since taking the show's helm in 1999, The Daily Show has won 18 Emmys for Outstanding Variety Series, as well as scores of fans. In October, 2010, Stewart took his show to the streets, with his semi-satirical march in Washington, D.C., the Rally to Restore Sanity. More than 200,000 people joined him.

keith olbermann yearbook high school young red carpet photo

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Keith Olbermann High School Yearbook Photo, 1975

Even sports journalists-turned-liberal-firebrands slog through high school. In 1975, Keith Olbermann was a senior at Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, where thick eyebrows and mixing patterns across every layer of clothing was de rigueur.

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Keith Olbermann—Today

In the past year, Olbermann has been the subject of news almost as much as he's covered it, as he and MSNBC parted ways in the wake of ethics offenses. His break-up with the network came after nearly a decade of ratings domination with his show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Still, the feisty anchor took his program to Al Gore's Current TV, where he served as Chief News Officer. He's now hosting a late night talk show on ESPN2.

rachel maddow yearbook high school young red carpet photo

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Rachel Maddow High School Yearbook Photo, 1990

Future MSNBC wunderkind Rachel Maddow's intellect was first nurtured in the classrooms of Castro Valley High School, in Castro Valley, CA, where she was a senior in 1990. ... And a blonde.

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Rachel Maddow—Today

Average smart people step aside: Rachel Maddow has outdone you, first with her Stanford B.A., and secondly, with her Oxford Ph.D. ... not to mention her break-out hit of an MSNBC series, The Rachel Maddow Show. When the amiable, former Air America host arrived on the network in 2008, it was the most successful program launch in the network's history, and made Maddow a household name nearly overnight—to the chagrin of conservatives nationwide.

rush limbaugh yearbook high school red carpet photo

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Rush Limbaugh High School Yearbook Photo, 1969

As a teenager at Central High School in Cape Girardeau, MO, Rush Limbaugh Hudson III already had family roots in the Republican party. His uncle is a Ronald Reagan-appointed judge, while his cousin is a judge appointed by George W. Bush.

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Rush Limbaugh—Today

With one of the highest-rated talk-radio shows in the country and a no-holds-barred approach to commentary, Limbaugh's vituperative opinions spare (almost) no one outside of the Republican party. His searing indictments of everyone from the Obama administration to the national news media have also incited numerous complaints against him including, most recently, a demand for an apology from the Italian American One Voice Coalition, for comments he made about former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's "Italian grease ball hair."

donna brazile political commentator young photo

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Donna Brazile Attends the <i>O Magazine</i> 10th Anniversary, 2010

While most girls her age were playing with Barbies, Donna Brazile reportedly developed a penchant for politics when a local candidate vowed to build a playground in her neighborhood. With the promise of the civic project, a future Democratic pundit was born.

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Donna Brazile—Today

Consultant, professor, pundit—what doesn't this power-house do? Brazile's resume is about as long as the average congressional bill, starting with stints working on campaigns for candidates and future presidents including Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, Walter Mondale, Richard Gephardt, Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton. It was during Al Gore's ill-fated run for the nation's top office that she became the first female African-American ever to manage a presidential campaign. These days, the ubiquitous Brazile keeps busy as a frequent contributor to CNN, as a vice-chairwoman on the Democratic National Committee, president and founder of her consultancy, Brazile and Associates, and as an adjunct professor.