The British Telegraph newspaper is in the middle of a weeklong parlor game in which it names the Top 100 liberals and conservatives in America. Today, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick showed up at No. 71 on the left-hand list, between West Wing scribe Aaron Sorkin and former president Jimmy Carter. The capsule description does not get into Patrick’s performance as governor so far:

A businessman and lawyer who became the first black governor of the New England state of Massachusetts last year and only the second black elected governor. Patrick, 51, served as an assistant attorney general in Bill Clinton’s administration but recently endorsed Barack Obama for president.

Harvard-educated, he has worked for the United Nations in Africa and is part of a new generation of black American politicians who want to move beyond the more race-based politics of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. A possible Attorney General in an Obama administration.