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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Person of the Year

Person of the Year

by Michael D.|  December 20, 20078:55 am| 45 Comments

This post is in: Media, Popular Culture, Republican Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To

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You knew this would happen. I find it amusing that people don’t realize that Time’s Person of the Year has never been about rewarding people. It’s always been about recognizing impact.

Still, it doesn’t surprise me that greater Wingnutia is whining about Time Magazine choosing Vladmir Putin – even when there’re so many reasons, good and bad, that Putin has had a tremendous influence during his reign as Emperor of Russia. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have made the list in years past. I guess they (conveniently) forgot those ones.

But you know. It’s all about finding an excuse to write a “the MSM is biased” post. Stupid, really. Obviously, they wanted King George on the cover for a third time.

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45Comments

  1. 1.

    Seanly

    December 20, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Yeah, Time’s Person of the Year doesn’t mean the bestest dude or dudette on the planet.

    Hugh & Confederate Yankee are more than welcome to present their Annual Award for Most Awesome Raging Dry Drunk with Whom I’d Like to Share a Beer Because I’m a Stupid Partisan Hack. Winner: George W. Bush! 10th year in a row!

  2. 2.

    Salmon of Trout

    December 20, 2007 at 9:13 am

    No, they all wanted General Petraeus because he turned Iraq into the greatest victory in American history. Fairly obvious choice if you ask me.

  3. 3.

    Psycheout

    December 20, 2007 at 9:15 am

    Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have made the list in years past. I guess they (conveniently) forgot those ones.

    I didn’t. But you seem to delight in ignoring my insightful posts.

  4. 4.

    myiq2xu

    December 20, 2007 at 9:26 am

    Damn, I was hoping to win again this year.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    December 20, 2007 at 9:27 am

    No, they all wanted General Petraeus because he turned Iraq into the greatest victory in American history.

    They also wanted General Pet Rat-us for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, you read that correctly.

  6. 6.

    Zifnab

    December 20, 2007 at 9:29 am

    “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul.” —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001

    Why does Greater Wingnuttia hate the President?

  7. 7.

    myiq2xu

    December 20, 2007 at 9:32 am

    “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul.” —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001

    “Mr. President, I looked in his eyes and all I saw was the KGB.” -Colin Powell

  8. 8.

    Faux News

    December 20, 2007 at 9:39 am

    Punchy, PLEASE tell me you are making that up!

  9. 9.

    TheFountainHead

    December 20, 2007 at 9:41 am

    Vladimir Putin is one of many reasons that electing Hillary would frighten me. Bush can’t differentiate between “bomb them” and “out-fox them” and Hillary can’t differentiate a “threat” from “political hackery”. I can’t say either Obama or Edwards would play the Russia hand right, who knows, but I imagine they’d be much cooler customers about it than Bush was/Hillary would be.

  10. 10.

    SPIIDERWEB™

    December 20, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Can you imagine the onset of apoplexy among the wingers had Gore gotten it?

    LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA!

  11. 11.

    Jen

    December 20, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Just had to share a new word I learned from Confederate Yankee’s comments:

    assine

    Oh, the delightful merger of a $.50 word with a $.02 brain. Someone should come up with a name for the types of words that result.

  12. 12.

    TheFountainHead

    December 20, 2007 at 9:47 am

    Can you imagine the onset of apoplexy among the wingers had Gore gotten it?

    LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA! LIBERAL MEDIA!

    Yeah, but in that case, they’d be right.

  13. 13.

    The Grandest Panjandrum

    December 20, 2007 at 9:52 am

    “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul.” —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001

    “Mr. President, I looked in his eyes and all I saw was the KGB.” -Colin Powell

    “Mr. President, I looked him in the eye–while squatting–and I was able to see a short man, a very short man. I found him to be have an insatiable thirst for control. I was able to get a sense of his Napoleon complex.” — The Grandest Panjandrum AKA the blogger formerly known as Cinderella Ferret

  14. 14.

    Cassidy

    December 20, 2007 at 9:54 am

    But why Putin? I would say, if anything, any of our stellar performers in office have had as much, if not more impact than him.

  15. 15.

    Jen

    December 20, 2007 at 9:54 am

    Grand Panjandrum, you might mean deravity depravity. Just want you to get started on the right foot. Paw. Whatevs.

  16. 16.

    TheFountainHead

    December 20, 2007 at 9:58 am

    You know, you could make the argument that this choice is one the wingers to the right should be breathing a sigh of relief over. Time could have easily chosen Bush as the most negative influence on this country, instead they chose an outsider that the Wingers can/do/will blame all of our problems on.

  17. 17.

    Jen

    December 20, 2007 at 10:10 am

    They also wanted General Pet Rat-us for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, you read that correctly.

    Well, Kissinger won, which is just a head-scratcher if you ask me. Maybe they think he was the only one who has ever really deserved it. Stupid biased….world….

  18. 18.

    Zifnab

    December 20, 2007 at 10:15 am

    But why Putin? I would say, if anything, any of our stellar performers in office have had as much, if not more impact than him.

    On ourselves, perhaps. I could definitely see Bush winning Man of the Year again if this was a question of Most Influential Person In America. No one has quite had a hand in messing with this country like he has.

    But Putin actually controls a great number of natural resources that affect the better part of the Euro-Asia super continent. What’s more, he is in much firmer command of his country – with something like a 70-80% approval rating from a totally cowed public. Putin is today what Bush was on September 12, 2001 and he’s not fading from power any time soon. Russia is climbing its way back towards Superpower status with Putin at the helm.

    Al Gore is building a still-fledging green movement. Putin sits at the head of a slumbering juggernaut. The differences are stark. I don’t begrudge him his title.

  19. 19.

    myiq2xu

    December 20, 2007 at 10:15 am

    No, they all wanted General Petraeus because he turned Iraq into the greatest snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in American history.

    Fixed

  20. 20.

    Cassidy

    December 20, 2007 at 10:25 am

    The differences are stark. I don’t begrudge him his title.

    Neither do I. I just figured the guy that continues to de-stabilize an unstable region, singlehandedly, should at least get an honorable mention.

  21. 21.

    Don

    December 20, 2007 at 10:29 am

    The problem with Time’s assertion that it’s not an honor is they chickened out of naming Osama PotY in 01, and did it purely out of cowardice. You can be sure they’d never have had to convince anyone it wasn’t an honor again after that.

  22. 22.

    r€nato

    December 20, 2007 at 10:45 am

    It must be really, really tiresome to be Time’s editor-in-chief and have to continually explain, year after year, what “Person of the Year” really means.

    Putin is a much better and more relevant choice than last year’s “You”. Chimpy’s warmongering in the ME is in no small part responsible for Russia’s re-emergence as a power of significance, if not quite a superpower (they are nowhere near approaching the USSR’s pre-eminence). If it weren’t for high oil prices, Putin would still be presiding over a wreck of an economy and would have little time to play American contrarian.

  23. 23.

    jcricket

    December 20, 2007 at 10:56 am

    Can you imagine the onset of apoplexy among the wingers had Gore gotten it?

    As their idiotic reaction to Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize (i.e. it’s really the US military that should win that), they’re fucking morons.

    They are going to scream LIBERAL BIAS if anything in the media contradicts the WH PR flacks, and it’s fucking time for the media to wake up, stop caring what Republicans claim and start reporting facts.

    Republicans have their targets mixed up when it comes to who we shouldn’t be trying to appease due to their own psychological projection. It is the Republicans who cannot be appeased, only dealt with through force.

  24. 24.

    Jake

    December 20, 2007 at 11:01 am

    But why Putin? I would say, if anything, any of our stellar performers in office have had as much, if not more impact than him.

    He put in the highest bid?

  25. 25.

    Krista

    December 20, 2007 at 11:19 am

    It must be really, really tiresome to be Time’s editor-in-chief and have to continually explain, year after year, what “Person of the Year” really means.

    I know. Why don’t they just change it to “Newsmaker of the Year”? It might not sound as prestigious as “Person of the Year”, but it makes the intent a lot more clear.

  26. 26.

    MistaSparkle

    December 20, 2007 at 11:42 am

    Y’know, rumor has it that the folks at Time were considering giving the nod last year to Ahmadinejad before they decided on just giving the Person of the Year award to everybody.

    Speaking of which, doesn’t this technically mean that Putin has already won this award and can’t win again? I think they’d have to find someone who was born just after the magazine when the last Person of the Year was published in order to keep things kosher.

  27. 27.

    myiq2xu

    December 20, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    Why don’t they just change it to “Newsmaker of the Year”

    If they made it “Noisemaker of the Year” then BillO might win.

  28. 28.

    The Other Steve

    December 20, 2007 at 12:23 pm

    I think the choice of Putin was correct.

    I think it is obvious when you think about it, that he has transformed Russia in the last few years. In the 1990s Russia was irrelevant, now they are an important presence on the world stage, as signifigant as any other nation in Europe.

    The wingnuts are just upset, because Putin plays Bush like a piano. We need someone in office who isn’t a moron, who can play the game at Putin’s level.

  29. 29.

    The Other Steve

    December 20, 2007 at 12:28 pm

    The angel Gabriel came to the Lord and said “I have to talk to you.We have some Russians up here in heaven that are causing problems.They’re swinging on the pearly gates, my horn is missing, they are wearing Dolce and Gabbana instead of their white robes, they’re riding BMW’s instead of the chariots, and they’re selling their halos to people for discount prices.They refuse to keep the stairway to Heaven clear, since they keep crouching down midway eating sunflower seeds and pelemeni and smoking. Some of them are walking around with just one wing!”

    The Lord said, “Russians are Russians. Heaven is home to all my children. If you want to know about real problems, call the devil.”

    The Devil answered the phone, “Hello? Damn, hold on a minute.” The Devil returned to the phone, “OK I’m back. What can I do for you?” Gabriel replied, “I just wanted to know what kind of problems you’re having down there.” The Devil said, “Hold on again. I need to check on something.” After about 5 minutes the Devil returned to the phone and said, “I’m back. Now what was the question?” Gabriel said, “What kind of problems are you having down there?” The Devil said, “Man I don’t believe this…….Hold on.” This time the Devil was gone 15 minutes. The Devil returned and said, “I’m sorry Gabriel, I can’t talk right now.Those damn Russians have put out the fire and are trying to install air conditioning!! “

  30. 30.

    Len

    December 20, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have made the list in years past.

    Didn’t George W. Bush also win one year? The wingers must have been pleased with that. Also, they must recall that this is the same mag that named Power Line their blog of the year. That should have made them happy.

    Oh, I forgot… Wingers don’t get happy. Too busy being victims.

  31. 31.

    myiq2xu

    December 20, 2007 at 12:46 pm

    I think it is obvious when you think about it, that he has transformed Russia in the last few years. In the 1990s Russia was irrelevant, now they are an important presence on the world stage, as signifigant as any other nation in Europe.

    Although you would never know it from the stories in our corporate media, Putin has done a lot for Russia and he is very popular with the Russian people. He is a nationalist, not a globalist.

    If there is such a thing as a nation psyche, the Russians are a fiercly proud people who are more concerned with stability and security than with individual freedom.

    Putin has made tremendous progress in ending corruption and restoring the Russian economy. He has also helped to restore their pride and national self-esteem.

    Although he is definitely no saint, one could make the argument that Putin is an example of Machiavelli’s “wise prince.”

  32. 32.

    Jake

    December 20, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    Why don’t they just change it to “Newsmaker of the Year”? It might not sound as prestigious as “Person of the Year”, but it makes the intent a lot more clear.

    Heh. Are you thinking perhaps of the nine zillion lawyers that weren’t pleased when the ABA named GoneZo Lawyer of the Year?

  33. 33.

    Psycheout

    December 20, 2007 at 2:05 pm

    The problem with Time’s assertion that it’s not an honor is they chickened out of naming Osama PotY in 01, and did it purely out of cowardice.

    Incredible. You lefties actually consider OBL to be the Man of the Year for 2001…. I’m shocked. I know you can’t help yourself, but your hatred of America is really astonishing.

  34. 34.

    grumpy realist

    December 20, 2007 at 2:16 pm

    Yup, Psycheout, you’ve definitely got the wingers’ response down flat, including the ignoring all the data that has been posted above about what “Person of the Year” means.

    Bravo. (slow golf clap.)

  35. 35.

    tom.a

    December 20, 2007 at 2:31 pm

    Time’s Person of the Year has never been about rewarding people. It’s always been about recognizing impact.

    Exactly why their second choice, J.K. Rowling, should have won. Like the books or not, she’s impacted an entire generation of kids and pissed off a slew of religious right nuts which in my view is worth an award by itself.

  36. 36.

    Psycheout

    December 20, 2007 at 2:38 pm

    al-Gore was the first runner up. Typical.

  37. 37.

    LiberalTarian

    December 20, 2007 at 3:33 pm

    Psycheout Says:

    Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have made the list in years past. I guess they (conveniently) forgot those ones.

    I didn’t. But you seem to delight in ignoring my insightful posts.

    I delight in ignoring all his posts!

  38. 38.

    Cyrus

    December 20, 2007 at 3:40 pm

    Speaking of which, doesn’t this technically mean that Putin has already won this award and can’t win again? I think they’d have to find someone who was born just after the magazine when the last Person of the Year was published in order to keep things kosher.

    Well, no, because there’s no rule that each person can only win it once. Someone posted a link in a comment to Psycheout’s post on this, for example, or just look up the list on Wikipedia. Last year’s choice was really stupid for plenty of reasons, though.

  39. 39.

    LiberalTarian

    December 20, 2007 at 3:59 pm

    I am not afraid of the next Hitler. I am afraid of the next “Nazi” government, regardless of the nom de jure. Was Hitler a bad man? Sure, so is the guy down the road from me, but the guy down the road doesn’t have True Believers in his entourage that can enable him to kill millions of people. GW Bush, Richard Cheney, the neocons and their “compassionate conservativism” is the closest we’ve come to having a nuevo Hitler and Nazi Germany for some time. Or maybe Stalinism?

    I have low regard for Putin, because I think he would be comfortable with a Cold War for our age, but if we are talking about whether he is of the genocidal caliber of Hitler, Stalin and our own Dear Leader Bush, I would say no.

    GW Bush’s vanity war and destabilizing assault on world peace will rise to the level of “holocaust” before the fat lady sings. What I find interesting is the relative lack of contributing factors that will lead to his historical prominence as a murdering maniac–many posit that WWII was the natural continuation of WWI, but so far I have not seen how the pre-9/11 al Qaeda (a group of thugs/criminals) could be intelligently elevated to the same catalytic relevance of the Treaty of Versailles. Maybe the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is?

  40. 40.

    bwaage

    December 20, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    If there is such a thing as a nation psyche, the Russians are a fiercly proud people who are more concerned with stability and security than with individual freedom.

    Putin has made tremendous progress in ending corruption and restoring the Russian economy. He has also helped to restore their pride and national self-esteem.

    Although he is definitely no saint, one could make the argument that Putin is an example of Machiavelli’s “wise prince.”

    If your choices are between today’s Russia, the clusterfuck of violence/corruption/poverty of the 90s and the 70 years of Soviet rule, then yeah Putin looks pretty good. But I really don’t think those are the only options. I think the popularity of Putin has less to do with your idea that they don’t really care much about individual freedom and more to do with the fact that the country’s one experience with democracy was so ridiculously abused and mismanaged that it has soured current generations on the idea in general.

    Secondly, Putin has cleaned up corruption a good deal, but he also continues to use this as a way prevent others opposing him. Just about anyone who accumulated the kind of wealth and power that would be needed to challenge Putin’s authority most likely got their hands very dirty in shady dealings in the 90s. After very publicly going after people who opposed him soon after he took office he sent a pretty clear message that if you don’t want your corruption brought to light and prosecuted then you better stay on his good side.

    And while I agree that he has helped the economy, much of its recent success is due to the fact that he came to power at about the same time that oil prices started to skyrocket. Their economic success is becoming increasingly dependent on oil and natural gas, and Putin has made very little effort at diversification.

  41. 41.

    The Other Steve

    December 20, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    I am not afraid of the next Hitler. I am afraid of the next “Nazi” government, regardless of the nom de jure. Was Hitler a bad man? Sure, so is the guy down the road from me, but the guy down the road doesn’t have True Believers in his entourage that can enable him to kill millions of people. GW Bush, Richard Cheney, the neocons and their “compassionate conservativism” is the closest we’ve come to having a nuevo Hitler and Nazi Germany for some time. Or maybe Stalinism?

    Yeah, but Hitler was the kind of guy you could have a beer with.

  42. 42.

    Blue Jean

    December 21, 2007 at 12:39 am

    Even a Beer Hall Putsch with.

    Oh, I forgot… Wingers don’t get happy. Too busy being victims.

    Amen, Len. Some are so eager to be victims, they even victimize themselves first. As the pro-chasity folks would say, “It’s better to beat yourself up than beat yourself off.”

  43. 43.

    myiq2xu

    December 21, 2007 at 5:03 am

    I think the popularity of Putin has less to do with your idea that they don’t really care much about individual freedom and more to do with the fact that the country’s one experience with democracy was so ridiculously abused and mismanaged that it has soured current generations on the idea in general.

    Imagine if you had to judge democracy based entirely upon the Shrub administration.

  44. 44.

    Joshua

    December 21, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    Don’t forget, they wanted General Petraeus to win the Nobel Peace Prize, too. I am not joking.

    As far as I am concerned, TIME blew it on their “Person of the Year is about impact not approval” when they gave it to Rudy in 2001 instead of Osama bin Laden.

    So they gave wingnuttia an “in”.

  45. 45.

    BIRDZILLA

    December 23, 2007 at 12:39 am

    What else can you ever expect from a ultra liberal lie a week rag like TIME this mag once name ADOLPH HITLER as MAN OF THE YEAR back in 1938 and showed that gross picture of the ICE MAN

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