My money is on Julian Assange, but I can also see a case for it being Barack Obama, Glenn Beck, or Jerzy Buzek. But Time likes to throw dorky curveballs with Person of the Year too, so you get things like “You” (god, that was such a lame presentation of what was accurate identification of an important trend) or “The Whistleblowers” or “the Good Samaritans.”
So – thoughts?
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My money is on Julian Assange
Yes but Time cares more about their money, which is why they’ll never make it a figure that would cause more outrage than sales (Putin wasn’t that outrageous and made an interesting story).
It’s also primarily an American publication, which means it’ll almost definitely focus on the 2010 elections, especially since Republicans won. In other words it’s either Sarah Palin or John Boehner.
Boehner.
Damn it, and here I thought I was going off the wall thinking Boehner. But yeah, I see a whole “led the Republicans to amazing gains in the House” angle while downplaying all the deliberate lying, stalling, and willful ignorance of facts.
If they do go for Assange, then it really should have been given to Bradley Manning, but I can’t see Time having the balls to give that award to someone still sitting in a military prison. There would be fainting in Washington DC.
I’m going to go with Assange.
Jerzy Buzek? Is that a rapper? It should be Kanye West, if it’s going to be a rapper….
But seriously, as a former winner (2005), I feel qualified to weigh in here. Mark Zuckerberg has to be under consideration, right? It’s not like Facebook has gotten less significant or influential in the past few years, and given the philanthropy and the movie, his stature has only grown. Assange makes the most sense, of course, but I think it’d be hard to argue with Glenn Beck, too. Boehner may be the electoral face of the midterms, and Palin may be the gun they’re loading for 2012, but Beck did the dirt-work of rallying those retards into a crazy political force that could empower Boehner and Palin.
time’s
My money is on Julian Assange
Who?
Justin Bieber. Hey, if it’s good enough for Barbara Walters…
Actually, I’m kidding. I’m going with the Tea Partiers.
Ted Danson.
And I’m willing to put very good money that that will be the only time the words “I’m going with the Tea Partiers” will ever leave my mouth or fingers.
God help us, it’ll probably be Sarah Palin.
My guess is Beck and Jon Stewart sharing the cover (though not necessarily the same photo shoot).
Obama didn’t really do anything other than Be President, Palin’s influence on the election was overstated, Boehner didn’t do anything special, choosing Buzek would just confuse the kind of casual pick-it-up-off-the-newsstand reader who goes for the PotY issue.
Choosing Beck and Stewart together hits the widest possible target market. They’ll write an article about the deeply divided electorate and how Beck and Stewart are symbolic of that. Or something.
Nathan Fillion.
(Hey, no one’s more suprised than I am….)
Nick Clegg, for his services to cynicism and dejection above the call of duty.
It should be Assange, but I really doubt it will be. For some reason, much of the news media seems to be against him. (I don’t know Time’s position, though.) Time has picked highly controversial choices before, but usually it’s tyrants who are opposed to free speech.
Obama was a good choice for 2008, but I don’t see why they should pick him this year.
Rand Paul is a possibility, but not likely.
I might suggest Marc Emery, but I don’t see that being very likely, either.
Rob Ford.
The guy standing RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!
Hey, it may have been lame, but at least it allowed me to put “Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ (2006)” on my résumé.
My money’s on Beck.
Boehner is, frankly, a boring human being. He’s going to be Speaker of the House, but he’s not really leaving his role as minority leader. Now he’ll just be a minority leader who can act like a bigger dick. At the least, it’ll be whomever is currently Head Spokesasshole of the Tea Party. This is more their win than Boehner’s anyway.
I could see Beck and Stewart, but Stewart’s rally was – in beltway media retrospect – a flop.
Assange is newsworthy right now. I’d put my money on him just because he’s someone everyone will want to read about.
Sarah Palin.
She’ll deserve it as much as she deserves anything, but picking her would be an accurate summary of the year in US politics.
If it’s going to be a right-wing icon, it should be Roger Ailes. His organization is doing much more to galvanize the Republicans than anything Michael Steele could manage to cobble together.
Then again, being Time, there’s no guarantee that they won’t go for a vacuous entertainer/lightning rod (Tiger Woods/Bristol Palin/Snooki/Christine O’Donnell) or lazy collective (Tiger’s mistresses, “Jersey Shore”, the 99ers, the Tea Party, the population of Karshasia) or nonentity (Eyjafjallajokull, the vuvuzela, arsenic) or just fumble altogether (Tina Brown, Tony Hayward, LeBron James). Zuckerberg or Assange (probably in that order; it could change) seem most likely, in that Zuckerberg’s domain seems more amorphous and mysterious, where Assange’s role as a whistleblower/leaker seems more disappointingly familiar to old-media types….
The Pope, but not the one everyone expects…
Failing that, the rare arsenic tolerant bacteria that cause the redness and irritation around Time editor Richard Stengel’s tiny hairless genitalia, which he caught off of the ex-KGB hookers his bosses at time warner give him in exchange for making Time the blandest and most irrelevent of all the american right-wing slanted magazines.
Or Lady Gaga.
After they picked Giuliani over BIn Laden in 2001 I lost all respect, I mean really, REALLY?
I think Beck/Stewart is a solid guess from the marketing point of view. Palin will also sell magazines.
How much longer can this magazine keep denying Rex the motherfucking wonder dog his rightful prize?
If you want uplifting, it should be the people working on the Haiti earthquake relief.
If the editors want to be suck-ups, it’ll be Beck. /facepalm.
Aboynamedart: Rex wins the much more prestigious Galactic Citizen of the Year award. Every 6 months.
dr. zaius
I’m gonna go with Axe Cop.
Kid Kyoto . . . I don’t know if bin Laden would’ve been a popular choice in 2001, even if he was the logical pick. Giuliani held New York together through perhaps the worst period in its history, and he made people forget that he was a gigantic asshole. That took some doing.
They should just say “No One” because no one’s done anything to make this year truly memorable.
Well Maybe Bill Maher and Christine O’Donnell. But that’s about it.
Toss-up between Palin, Assange, and the Chilean Miners. Although it would be much more honest to give it to Manning than Assange, really…I mean, Elvis is a plausible PotY, not the Colonel…
Doctor Doom. It should always be Doctor Doom.
“Kid Kyoto . . . I don’t know if bin Laden would’ve been a popular choice in 2001, even if he was the logical pick. Giuliani held New York together through perhaps the worst period in its history, and he made people forget that he was a gigantic asshole. That took some doing.”
I know. I’m from NY.
But Time’s criteria is they’ll pick the person who had the most impact that year, Hitler and Stalin both ‘won’ this award. They can certainly say Guiliani did a great job holding the city together and calming nerves but no one can say with a straight face he was more important to the news of 2001 than Bin Laden.
Rex The Wonder Dog is Person of the Century.
I’m not ruling out a total douche move by Time where they proclaim President Obama PotY and cite a lack of influence as what made him influential.