Soon it’ll be time for Time Magazine to name its Person of the Year for 2007. Assuming they don’t cop out again this year here are my top picks for who they’ll name:
- Al Gore
- Gen. David Petraeus
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Four out of the last five years Time has declined to name a single individual and has instead seen fit to designate a group or collective entity. An individual is due to be named. Only one president has been named three times, FDR, so I’d say George W. Bush is definitely out although he’s certainly had an interesting year. Since the magazine re-christened the feature from “Man of the Year” to “Person of the Year” no individual woman has been named although, ironically, several women had been designated “Man of the Year”. The most obvious women in the news here in the States have been Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi but naming them would probably be seen as too overtly political. Would Oprah be a good candidate?
The former vice president has had a very good year—he’s already got an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize under his belt. Picking him would be a way for Time to show their green street cred while remaining nominally nonpartisan. I think he’s a likely pick.
The improvement in conditions in Iraq is certainly big and welcome news. Will it last? Who knows? But the personification of the turnaround there has got to be Gen. David Petraeus. In years gone by I think he’d have been a shoo-in.
Has there been a more consistent newsmaker than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Time doesn’t usually name people who are openly and actively anti-American so this is pretty unlikely.
Any ideas on who’ll be tapped?
You have three solid choices I think. For a darkhorse, I’ll pick Obama.
Ought to be Petraeus. We are a long way from knowing how Iraq will play out, but the general was handed lemons and made some damn good lemon sorbet.
Ahmadinejad’s a nobody. Gore is overexposed. Oprah would sell magazines. James Thomson, the scientist most identified with the stem cell breakthrough would be good. Czar Putin. HRC. Obama.
I’m going to say Thomson.
Um, Vladimir Putin… Heh.
The Ahmadinejad guess was a good one and I’m surprised he didn’t make the runners up list. Not at all sure why J.K. Rowling made the list but I suppose a nod to popular culture is in line with selling magazines. Maybe I’m simply being aloof but I’d have nominated Chris Hill first.