PERSON OF THE YEAR

I just got back from a fun luncheon for Time magazine, where a panel of me, Al Sharpton, Brian Williams, Alessandra Stanley and Coleen Rowley (the 9/11 FBI whistle-blower) discussed who should be Time’s Person of the Year. My suggestions? Karl Rove, Muhammed, or a mix of Michael Moore and Mel Gibson. But as the discussion progressed, it seemed to me that the editors would have a hard time not picking Bush. Rove was critical to Bush’s victory, but any Rove cover would inevitably be interpreted as some kind of insult to Bush himself. It would also do terribly on news stands, although the editor, Jim Kelly, said that was not a consideration. A generic person like the “terrorist”? Nah. Too defeatist and they’ve had too many generic persons of the year recently. And who other than GWB has affected the world more in the last twelve months? Sharpton was funny, as usual. Williams was very defensive about the blogosphere. And Alessandra Stanley of the NYT lamented that most blog readers were engage, and so unrepresentative of America as a whole. Yep. That’s coming from the NYT. Oh well. Any out of the box ideas? Since Jim Kelly tells me he reads the blog every day, this would be a good place to forward them. Oh, and Paula Zahn is taaall.