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President Barack Obama is TIME magazine’s iconic Person of the Year, managing editor Rick Stengel revealed Wednesday as he unveiled the 2012 cover on TODAY.
“He’s basically the beneficiary and the author of a kind of a New America, a new demographic, a new cultural America that he is now the symbol of,” Stengel said.
Obama became the first Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win two consecutive re-elections with at least 50 percent of the vote, despite the highest unemployment rate in seven decades.
Stengel said Obama won support from a core group of voters who “actually don’t care about politics” and felt the president ignored partisanship to do his job.
“Using the coalition of the ascendant young voters, millennials, Hispanics minorities, he’s creating a new alignment, a kind of realignment like Ronald Reagan did 40 years ago,” he said.
This is Obama's second time on the cover with the iconic title. He also secured the title the last time he won election — in 2008, just after he became the first African American elected president.
The magazine's short list for this year's Person of the Year cover was revealed on TODAY, and tens of thousands of TODAY.com readers voted among the eight candidates. In addition to President Obama, they included Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!; Mohammed Morsi, president of Egypt; Undocumented Americans; Bill and Hillary Clinton; ; Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani student activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple; and the Higgs Boson and Italian physicist Fabiola Giannati.
Yousafzai, the 15-year-old targeted by the Taliban because she championed the cause of education for girls, narrowly defeated Obama in a TODAY poll.
As it has for the past 85 years, the weekly newsmagazine selected the person (or sometimes group, or thing) that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse.
Time’s Person of the Year has been a perennial topic of year-end debate ever since aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year back in 1927 (the title was amended to Person of the Year in 1999). But the title is not necessarily an accolade; while many presidents, political leaders, innovators and captains of industry have been cited, some of the more notorious Persons of the Year include Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1943 and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. There have also been more conceptual choices, such as “the American Fighting-Man” (1950), “Middle Americans” (1969), and last year’s choice, The Protester.
More from TIME magazine:
- TIME Person of the Year 2012
- President Obama: 'These Tragedies Must End'
- Malala Yousafzai and why education should in the foreign policy debate
- Apple CEO Tim Cook announces U.S. Mac production, warns: 'Don't bet against us'
- Mohammed Morsi's moment
- The Higgs boson, Fabiola Giannati and the Cathedral of Science
- Marissa Mayer's Wall Street debut sends Yahoo! stock surging
- Bill & Hillary Clinton: What will diplomacy look like in the 21st century?
- Undocumented Americans: Not legal, not leaving
- Slideshow: TIME Persons of the Year 1999-2011
Leave a Comment:
how about "the American Soldier" or "the Military Wife"
The Military Wife- excellent idea
Ok seriously, who really was Time Magazine's person pf the year?
I know, I know....The article must of been about, Who is the worst President ever! obama wins..
It should of been Ambassador Stevens.
Congratulation President Obama you deserve this honor.
I see Time Magazine continues its pro-liberal stance. With all the "deserving" people that should be recognized, this is a complete and utter farce. Interesting...they paired Obama cover with Putin cover in their slide show icon. Rightly. One communist to another. Another sad day for the country. But wait...who still reads this crap magazine anyway? Gag me.
So many conservatives were saying if Obama was reelected it would be the downfall of the US. So why are so many now saying it makes little difference if he or Romney was elected?
You mean like they have chosen every U.S. President since they started doing this?
This is just a status quo choice and so many of you are calling for the end of the world.
Then why are you all worked up over it? Why even comment if you couldn't care less about the publication? Just can't not attack the President, correct?
Get over it and move on.
The next President will be chosen, and the President after that and the President after that and the President after that. You see a trend yet?
Shocker - And next week it will be the Nobel for..........um........uh......Neuroscience.
What a joke...when I saw the list of candidates I knew he would be the choice. So many deserving people were skipped over. Yes he is influential, yes he has been effective in a bully pulpit presidency obtained through thuggery politics and tainted elections...we have become a society of educated fools. Bring on the Duck Hunters...
“that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse.”
Other “Persons of the Year include Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1943 and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.”
What’s all the fuss? Detractors and admirers both win.
You are shameful comparing the Presedent to Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Ayatollah Khomeini. Have you nothing better to do than making a comment that is so disrespectful?
Congratulations Mr. President you deserve this honor!
Ms. heidi-6712632, Time named President Obama the person of the year because of his great influence on the world for better or worse. You consider his influence to be a positive one. Others consider it to be negative. All the same, lest Mr. Obama is offended, I will apologize.
Dear President Obama,
I apologize for comparing you to these other three guys. You are by far very much unlike them. You are good man, a good family man. I voted for you twice, but my vote for your re-election did not count because of the electoral college thing.
It would be Ok with me to raise taxes on the super rich, but don't soak them. Also, reduce the federal deficit ASAP and let's get congress to simplify the federal tax system and close loop holes.
I will try to follow up with you later and check on your progress.
Thanks.
your friend,
ABCXYZ2
There are soo many other choices out there. How about the brave people who give their service. My vote would have gone to..The Service Men & Woman who fight for Our Country..Its not a person but PERSONS....
Big surprise. Pleeeeaase!
What does he win? A clown suit.
And the winner for best population control... Adam Lanza
Geez...gdimatt...please stop your awful heartless sickening trolling.
I don't really care who got the cover one way or the other, but I have to wonder why Time bothered with a poll, since clearly, it didn't influence their decision.
Time wont even survive the year. the Obamacare costs will finish them. How ironic.
What a JOKE! Just what has he accomplished besides winning an election?
He is a failure as a president. When is his next Noble prize coming?
Ah, I just love smell of right wing hysterics crapping themselves in the morning.
Good job, Mr President, keep 'em whining.
Why not Big Bird ? He kept Obama's attention & gave him a platform to run on for several weeks. It seems that Big Bird had a significant impact on getting Obama re-elected. Big Bird needs his recognition also. Where is the fairness?
I am sorry. Our economy is in the toilet, our national debt is huge and our taxes are going to go up. While she may not have had the impact the President may be having (negative or positive) I do not think he was more deserving than Malala Yousafzai.
Are you kidding me? They chose this joke of a president over a girl who nearly gave her life to protect the freedoms of women in her country? That's why I refuse to even read this biased, liberal magazine that is good for nothing more than toilet paper!
By the way, for all of the liveral haters who about to make a comment on fox News, no I don't watch that either. I inform myself and make my own decisions. That's the best way t keep my head out of the sand.
I see that's not working so well for you.
Pull your head out long enough to know that they have chosen every U.S. President since they started doing this.
Time has the choice to amplify either Malala Yousafzai's story, or Barack Obama's and which do they choose?
Women of the world, you're being played. WAKE UP!
Keep in mind....."Time magazine points out those such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, and Joseph Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942, and the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 have also been granted the title."
WOW....................total surprise. in the immortal words of yogi berra....."whoda thunk it"
How could Obama win 2 re-elections? He was only re-elected once! Clinton won two consecutive terms, doesn't he count?
What drivel!!!!!
Perhaps in four years he will be re-elected for the second time. Obama in 2016! "Hope and change...the constitution"
clinton didn't have 50% of the vote either
So how did he "win two consecutive re-elections"? The same people that can't write a coherent sentence are the same people that made this choice.
And I would argue that this ceased being a "topic of year-end debate" a few years ago when Time faded into obscure irrelevance.
This is the biggest joke of an award that was ever given but what do you expect coming out of New York.
Best president ever.
Surely you jest! You cannot be serious. In what universe do you reside?
Surely he's right.
Yes the President is one of the best Presidents! Get over the sour grapes and grow up commenters.