The runners-up, in case you were wondering, were Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson...

Dodged a bullet on that one.

Barack Obama was the obvious choice, but you've got to be kidding me on the runners up! Sarah Palin was on the national (not international) stage for approximately 15% of the year. Of that 15%, about 75% of the time was mocking her. Paulson was on the national stage for less than that. And I'm probably blanking badly on a couple of major international reasons, but Yimou and Sarkozy? Please!

How could she not win, for showing just how ignorant and craven the Republicans are????

Boring! Fix the economy already.

Paulson?

Seriously.

Well, I guess it is a magnificent feat to steal $700 billion from the taxpayers and get away with it.

He's the anti-Robin Hood.

Palin was on the national (not international) stage

Well, except for the call from Sarkozy.

Well. It is indeed not a big surprise that Obama was the one chosen for the award. Nonetheless, he deserved the award more than the other runner-ups.

Isn't there supposed to be a week of hype, leaked candidates, stories on sister-network CNN, more drama, suspense....???? This was it?? I smell an anti-Obama conspiracy here to downplay the significance of this transformative award..;-)

Well, except for the call from Sarkozy.

Oh, yeah. Forgot that--I'll be that's how he made runner-up! :-)

Zhang Yimou??!!!?

He's made some spectacular movies, and we are forever grateful for his introducing the world to the lovely Gong Li, but person of the year for doing the Olympic opening ceremony???? How did he even get in contention?

Next year: Philip Seymour Hoffman for just being cool.

And, if you dismiss the Liberal Media label as a canard, I submit Yimou over Joe the Plumber. At least PlayGirl still has Joe as their Center Fold of the Year. Well, they would if they were still around. Joe would join Fred Williamson and Burt Reynolds as a Classic.

DYNASTIES.... To reiterate a point from the other day…

Or for more than a century, for those that are of money and power, those born of the Jekyll Island group, the birth place of the American Central Banking System called the Federal Reserve Board, is before us today as the legacy of the greatest Dynasty ever contrived behind closed doors. And, with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is staring at America in full view playing the largest Ponzi Tax fraud money scheme in front of our eyes. Bail out as much money as you can before the public can do anything about it.

When one takes a good look at the Federal Reserve System, it was not meant to be a free market system. Actually, American tax money is and has been controlled for the rich and powerful for just about a century. Instant title funding one of the appreciated tools of the Federal Reserve by the Republicans for decades.

The Federal Reserve being one of the Quasi Government systems having leader ship picked by the President, worse having foreign influence beyond anything known, is by far the trillion dollar play ground. If held accountable would likely send a huge bulk of today’s politicians and loyal perpetrators domestic and world wide to jail. Which, maybe, maybe just might start happening in today’s transparency in the Internet?

The person of the year could very well be the “Gang of Year� the “Neo-Con’s of the year� or how about “Bush and Company of the year�. It really has to be a Dynasty because it takes a lot of effort to screw up the world economy.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou

Dictator?

The list itself shows:

- the shallowness of the thinking behind it

- the 'winners curse' - you don't want to be 'person of the year'

- the increasing irrelevance of publications like Time, which no longer offer value for money or even a pulse on the zeitgeist

For at least 25 years Time has been getting thinner, and dumber.

Sarah Palin Person of the Year?

Why on earth not? After all, I was Person of the Year in 2006. Come to think of it, so were you.

Time should just rename their award to "Person of Mid-August thru maybe December".

Nonetheless, if Obama actually does what he says he's going to do, I'll give him "Person of the Decade".

what about the guy who threw the shoes?

No one else but Obama could have won it this year, and rightly so. But the Shoe Guy would have been the strongest runner-up, way more than any of those other bozos.

I mean, I like Sarkozy but really.....

The year isn't even over yet. What if next week Osama bin Laden drops a bomb on the American heartland that turns us all Muslim?

WHAT?! NO TINA FEY! (rant) (fume) (sulk)

Sarah Palin? Because so much of the agenda she put forward is being adopted?

On the other hand, I am planning to get rimless glasses soon. Maybe the opticians nominated her. :-)

Since all of us were Person of the Year in 2006, doesn't this mean that Barack Obama has now won it twice?

In my lifetime talented and ambitious African-Americans have been able to work into the upper echelons in all walks of life. Martin Luther King Day and Black Studies Month in 2009 will be an exceptional celebration.

The President of the United States is possibly the most criticized man in the world. Truman said "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." I hope that Obama can stand the heat. The heat will come later. For now, I hope he enjoys being Man of the Year.

No respect since they wimped out in 2001 and chose Giuliani instead of bin Laden. Maybe if they'd changed the title to "Newsmaker of the Year" the bozos who objected to the Ayatollah Khomenei being selected in 1979 would have gotten the idea that it's not supposed to be an honour (see: Hitler, Adolf; Stalin,Josef).

Agree with MikeN. They also wimped out of choosing Hitler as the person of the 20th century, going with Einstein. I think Hitler definitely should have been chosen. They said that Hitler's "negative" impact was why he wasn't, but this violates their own rules of the game--person of the year (or century) doesn't imply goodness or badness, but simply means that someone had the most impact of anyone during the time period in question.