Person of the Year

OK, so Time magazine has picked George W. Bush to be "Person of the Year" again this year. At first I was disgusted with the choice, making the common mistake of thinking of that designation as an honor. But it's not. The idea is to identify the person who had the most impact on the year's events.

I'm sure GWB and his worshippers are looking at it as an honor. The way Time wussed out and named the suddenly heroic Rudy Giuliani "Person of the Year" for 2001 instead of the more deserving, villainous Osama bin Laden, makes it easy to look at it that way. The news coverage of Time's choice this year (yes, a newsmagazine is being covered by newspapers) makes it sound that way as well, for example pointing out the esteemed company he's in (several popular presidents) for having been chosen twice.

But I'd like to put him in context of some other "Persons of the Year":
* Pierre Laval (French prime minister, collaborated with the Nazis)
* Adolf Hitler (Nazi führer, you know the story)
* Josef Stalin (Soviet dictator, a lot like Hitler just within his own country)
* Mohammed Mossaddegh (Iranian prime minister, took over oil operations and allied with radical Muslims)
* Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet premier, told U.S. "We will bury you.")
* Richard Nixon (U.S. president, resigned in disgrace)
* Faisal bin Abdul Aziz (Saudi king, created the 1970's oil crisis)
* Ruhollah Khomeni (Iranian ayatollah, held the U.S. embassy hostage)

There are other folks on the list, such as Deng Xiaoping, Gen. William Westmoreland, Henry Kissinger, Newt Gingrich, and Kenneth Starr, who aren't quite world-class exemplars of evil, but not exactly heroic role models, either.

The first time GWB was named was for 2000, the year in which his sole accomplishment was to get himself appointed to the presidency. This year that's his chief accomplishment again with even more divisiveness than before, with the added "bonus" of his occupation of Iraq going badly. He truly does stomp across the world stage like a microcephalic brontosaur, and his misdeeds currently dwarf those of any other player on that stage, including bin Laden. "Person of the Year"? Damn right.