Time magazine on Wednesday named US president-elect Barack Obama its 2008 "Person of the Year."
"For having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour, and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off, the president-elect is TIME's Person of the Year," the newsweekly said.
It said US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was first runner-up followed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and China's Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Time said its "Person of the Year" selection was the "person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."
The magazine last year selected Russian leader Vladimir Putin as its 2007 "Person of the Year."
In an interview with Time, Obama said that while he may have won a "decisive victory" over Republican John McCain in the November presidential election, "I don't think that Americans want hubris from their next president.
"I do think we received a strong mandate for change," he added in the December 5 interview.
Asked about the state of the economy, Obama said "I think we should anticipate that 2009 is going to be a tough year.
"And if we make some good choices, I'm confident that we can limit some of the damage in 2009 and that in 2010 we can start seeing an upward trajectory on the economy. "But this is a difficult hole that we've dug ourselves into."
On his foreign policy priorities, Obama said "there's no doubt that managing the transition in Iraq is going to be a top priority. Managing a more effective strategy in Afghanistan will be a top priority.
"Recognizing that it is not simply an Afghanistan problem but it's an Afghanistan-Pakistan-India-Kashmir-Iran problem is going to be a priority.
"Sorting through our policy with respect to Iran effectively -- that will be a priority," he said.
Obama told Time that "dealing with our transatlantic alliance in a more constructive way and trying to build a more effective relationship with the newly assertive and, I believe, inappropriately aggressive Russia, when it comes to the invasion of Georgia -- that is going to be a priority.
"And seeing if we can build on some of the progress, at least in conversation, that's been made around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be a priority," he said.
"Paying more attention to Latin America ... that, I think, would be very important," he continued. "And finally, managing our relationship with China and the entire Pacific Rim, I think, is something that will keep not just me busy but my successor busy."
Obama, who is to be sworn in on January 20 as the 44th president of the United States and the first African-American chief executive, said long-term priorities include nuclear proliferation and climate change.
"I think dealing with development and poverty around the world is going to be a critical component of our foreign policy," he added. "It's good for our security and not just charity."
History
The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year began in 1927, with Time editors contemplating newsworthy stories possible during a slow news week. The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year for not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes.[2]
Since then, a person, group of people, and in two special cases, an invention and the planet Earth, has been selected for the special year end issue. In 1999, the title was changed to Person of the Year in an effort to be more inclusive, and avoid purportedly sexist phraseology. However, the only women to win the renamed recognition so far were those recognized as The Whistleblowers (2002) and Melinda Gates (jointly with Bill Gates and Bono in 2005). Four women were granted the title when it was still Man of the Year: Wallis Simpson in 1936, Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) in 1937, Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, and Corazon Aquino in 1986. Nevertheless, women would also be included in several groups, namely Hungarian Freedom Fighter in 1956, U.S. scientists in 1960, Twenty-Five and Under in 1966, The Middle Americans in 1969, American Women in 1975, The American Soldier in 2003, and You in 2006.
Since the list began, every serving President of the United States has been a Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover (the presidents who were in office at the time of the first issue and the term immediately following it, respectively) and Gerald Ford.
The December 31, 1999, issue of Time named Albert Einstein the Person of the Century. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up.[3]
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have received the title 3 times - in 1932, 1934 and 1941.
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