I agree the Republican victory should figure in TIME's Person of the Year, but George W. Bush?
Maybe there wasn't anyone else. But if this year's Person of the Year had to revolve around the election, then rather than President Bush, and in all seriousness, I agree with George F. Will that this year's Person of the Year should be Karl Rove. For without question, Karl Rove, Inc. was Da Man instrumental in pulling off an undeserved second term.
And if not Karl Rove, I think back to 1979. Do you recall who was TIME's 1979 Person of the Year? Ayatullah Khomeini.
In the same spirit, I think this year's TIME's Person of the Year should be John Flipflop Kerry for various reasons, including being an improbable and undeserving leader who shaped history in the selection of a president and whom I want to forget as soon as he will let us.
Excerpts from TIME's 2004 Person of the Year -- George W. Bush:
-- George W. Bush is about to set a political record. The first TIME poll since the election has his approval rating at 49%. Gallup has it at 53%, which doesn't sound bad unless you consider that it's the lowest December rating for a re-elected President in Gallup's history. That is not a great concern, however, since he has run his last race, and it is not a surprise to a President who tends to measure his progress by the enemies he makes. "Sometimes you're defined by your critics," he says.
-- Bush views his decision to press for the transformation of Afghanistan and then Iraq—as opposed to "managing calm in the hopes that there won't be another September 11th, that the Salafist [radical Islamist] movement will somehow wither on the vine, that somehow these killers won't get a weapon of mass destruction"—as the heart of not just his foreign policy but his victory.
-- Ordinary Presidents have made mistakes and then sought to redeem themselves by admitting them; when Bush was told by some fellow Republicans that his fate depended on confessing his errors, he blew them off.
-- Bush ran big and bold and specific all at the same time, rivaling Reagan in breadth of vision and Clinton in tactical ingenuity. He surpassed both men in winning bigger majorities in Congress and the statehouses. And he did it all while conducting an increasingly unpopular war, with an economy on tiptoes and a public conflicted about many issues but most of all about him.
-- The man who in 2000 promised to unite and not divide now sounds as though he is prepared to leave as his second-term legacy the Death of Compromise. "I've got the will of the people at my back," he said at the moment of victory. From here on out, bipartisanship means falling in line: "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." Whatever spirit of cooperation that survives in his second term may have to be found among his opponents . . . .
-- For sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes—and ours—on his faith in the power of leadership, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year.
And if not Karl Rove, I think back to 1979. Do you recall who was TIME's 1979 Person of the Year? Ayatullah Khomeini.
In the same spirit, I think this year's TIME's Person of the Year should be John Flipflop Kerry for various reasons, including being an improbable and undeserving leader who shaped history in the selection of a president and whom I want to forget as soon as he will let us.
Excerpts from TIME's 2004 Person of the Year -- George W. Bush:
-- George W. Bush is about to set a political record. The first TIME poll since the election has his approval rating at 49%. Gallup has it at 53%, which doesn't sound bad unless you consider that it's the lowest December rating for a re-elected President in Gallup's history. That is not a great concern, however, since he has run his last race, and it is not a surprise to a President who tends to measure his progress by the enemies he makes. "Sometimes you're defined by your critics," he says.
-- Bush views his decision to press for the transformation of Afghanistan and then Iraq—as opposed to "managing calm in the hopes that there won't be another September 11th, that the Salafist [radical Islamist] movement will somehow wither on the vine, that somehow these killers won't get a weapon of mass destruction"—as the heart of not just his foreign policy but his victory.
-- Ordinary Presidents have made mistakes and then sought to redeem themselves by admitting them; when Bush was told by some fellow Republicans that his fate depended on confessing his errors, he blew them off.
-- Bush ran big and bold and specific all at the same time, rivaling Reagan in breadth of vision and Clinton in tactical ingenuity. He surpassed both men in winning bigger majorities in Congress and the statehouses. And he did it all while conducting an increasingly unpopular war, with an economy on tiptoes and a public conflicted about many issues but most of all about him.
-- The man who in 2000 promised to unite and not divide now sounds as though he is prepared to leave as his second-term legacy the Death of Compromise. "I've got the will of the people at my back," he said at the moment of victory. From here on out, bipartisanship means falling in line: "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." Whatever spirit of cooperation that survives in his second term may have to be found among his opponents . . . .
-- For sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes—and ours—on his faith in the power of leadership, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 10:41 PM
4 Comments:
Time named Hitler Man of the Year too... twice, if I recall correctly.
Stalin twice, once as a bad boy, later as a friend. Hitler once.
Stalin twice, once as a bad boy, later as a friend. Hitler once.
Ha, oops, my bad.
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