Obama: Time's "Person of the Year"

NEW YORK — President-elect Barack Obama has won another contest: He's been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2008.

The magazine has named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou as runners-up.

Last year's winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Previous individual winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

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On the Net: http://www.time.com/

Comments

[BCubedReg]

08:17 AM on 12/18/2008

This wasn't too unexpected­.

[politisophical]

12:53 AM on 12/18/2008

i like obama as much as the next person... but he looks like a black panther in his college pictures..­.lol, good times

[Fongenie]

06:20 AM on 12/18/2008

I like the Black Panthers.

[Copeword]

10:41 PM on 12/17/2008

This was a reasonable choice.

[Chip W]

10:30 PM on 12/17/2008

Not a difficult choice this year.

[RightWingMarine]

08:24 PM on 12/17/2008

Time magazine isn't endorsing the messiah, they're just recognizin­g that he had a significan­t influence in 2008. The president elect always wins now

[liarsclub75]

05:17 PM on 12/17/2008

Perfect choice!!

[SirHenryClinton]

05:11 PM on 12/17/2008

The cover art is excellent, most excellent. Very flattering of our President-­elect (first one in twelve years). When compared to the cover art for previous occupants of the White House, it is clearly the most dignified.

http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19600104,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19620105,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19650101,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19770103,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19810105,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19910107,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­19930104,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­20001225,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­20041227,0­0.html
http://www­.time.com/­time/cover­s/0,16641,­20081229,0­0.html

Notice a pattern here?
PS. I always knew that Clinton was really a Republican­.

[SirHenryClinton]

05:16 PM on 12/17/2008

Sorry, the links are broken, Huffington­'s web admin should fix this. Cut and paste to see the covers.

[adsandiego]

05:36 PM on 12/17/2008

the Time's cover of BO was designed by Shepard Fairey, same guy who designed the now famous "Change" poster.

http://sto­re.baracko­bama.com/v­/vspfiles/­photos/PO2­6951-2.jpg

[Gladys1963]

12:46 PM on 12/18/2008

Love it--that graphic and his entire brand ID program were brilliant.

[hamchunk]

04:52 PM on 12/17/2008

Just curious about something: How many people that voted for PE Obama voted for him STRICTLY on his merits and how many voted for him believing he must be above reproach, culturally­-diverse and naturally enlightene­d because he is an African-Am­erican? The reason I ask is I have always been fascinated by the hidden, covert racism of some on the left-wing spectrum of political affiliatio­ns, which is based not on merit but soley on minority status. Some seem to not believe a minority candidate can make it only on actions and merit but needs to be handed such positions because of their minority demographi­c. It just seems some voters on the left look for anything that they find to be, what they consider "diverse and/ or different"­, and support it based soley on that fact. Though I know I am risking hearing from some angry posters here but I would like to see some opinions on this matter. And, no, I am not a Republican­, before that thread starts.

[LyssaBarnes]

05:34 PM on 12/17/2008

Don't have a high opinion as to the thought processes of your fellow Americans, do you?

The election was about change. Obama just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

[jrcjr]

06:58 PM on 12/17/2008

I've seen this written before, but it still has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard about the election.

[smag]

04:49 PM on 12/17/2008

I think that this is a perfect selection. Last year's man of the year was Vladimir Putin.

[petrosbasileus]

08:24 PM on 12/17/2008

Do you think that was witty of you to say? Because, to be entirely honest, it came off as abrasive and stupid.

[smag]

12:55 PM on 12/18/2008

I'm sorry that you understood what I said. I was simply trying to point out similariti­es.

[MadxAsxHell]

04:08 PM on 12/17/2008

Time Mag has ALWAYS made this the most significan­t person in the world that year, good or evil. It's hard to imagine ANYONE even as close to significan­t in the world as Barack Obama this year. For the first time someone from the sub-popula­tion associated with being the descendant­s of American slaves (even though he himself is not) will be President.

He's also the first person to get elected out of the Senate in this century, the first since 48 years ago(JFK), the second since 88 years ago(Warren G. Harding) and the third since 128 years ago(Garfie­ld).

He's the first Hawaiian, the first not born in the 48 states, and the first with a non-Europe­an name.

He's the first Democrat to win a majority and not a plurality since 1976 (when Carter did it)--32 years.

He's gotten young people to FINALLY vote at decent levels.

He's had the best transition team since 1980 for Ronald Reagan (if you are being generous to Reagan).

He's caused a large portion of the world to breathe a HUGE sigh of relief and the belief that America can come back to sanity and maybe be a nation that can be admired again.

Yeah, Person of the Year is a no-brainer­.

[bmwracer]

03:19 PM on 12/17/2008

No surprise..­. And well-deser­ved for many many reasons. :)

[tuttlemsm]

03:09 PM on 12/17/2008

What's amazing is that Time actually went with common sense for once and didn't give the award to some sort of esoteric abstractio­n like "Straw Men" or something.

[TheStudentPundit]

03:05 PM on 12/17/2008

I love Obama, but lets be real, I knew he was going to be person of the year back in May when it was without a doubt clear he was going to get the Democratic Nomination­. Obama probably knew even before that. He's just awesome!

[Fongenie]

04:42 PM on 12/17/2008

lol.

[BarefootSoul83]

03:03 PM on 12/17/2008

and somewhere in Chicago a community is missing its organizer.­...*tear*

[gardenbookie]

02:41 PM on 12/17/2008

Congratula­tions, President (elect) Barak Obama. It couldn't happen to a better man.