I agree that Zelenskyy is top, with Charles being a distant second. The news surrounding Charles is almost entirely devoted to the lauding of his predecessor. All he’s done so far is show up. Maybe next year if he starts making his mark on Brittan.
I don’t think that they will go the generic freedom fighter route. They really only do that when there is no good individual that they can point to as the face of the movement. But Zelenskyy is clearly the face of Ukraine and has really done phenomenally well.
As an extreme longshot, if the FBI investigation of Trump and the Republicans goes into overdrive after the election and huge swaths of the Republican party go down in scandal leaving the political system in chaos, I could see Garland making it due to a bias towards Americans and recency. But the smart money is on Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy is still the odds on favorite and will win UNLESS Merritt Garland indicts Dolt 45 himself after the election in which case I would give it to Garland.
He’s not supposed to make a mark on Britain. He’s got a paid job with limited options, and if he does that without screwing it up, that’s all we can expect. He’s already ahead of Liz, in that he has raised an heir who is apparently not screwed up and who is well-liked (the spare seems a little like an entitled brat, but maybe that’s the Spencer in him). But there is no reason on this earth to make him person of the year just for serving as King of the UK.
At this point, I only see two scenarios where it might not be Zelenskyy: If Biden dies before selection time, in which case it might be Harris, or if Trump is indicted and convicted before selection time, in which case it might be Garland.
But both of those events are longshots, and even if either of them happens, it’s still not a slam-dunk that they’ll edge out Zelenskyy. Especially not if Ukraine scores more major victories between now and then, which they might.
Here are the 10 finalists - the winner will be announced on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday:
Xi Jinping
U.S. Supreme Court
Elon Musk
Liz Cheney
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
MacKenzie Scott
Iranian Protesters
Ron DeSantis
Gun Safety Advocates
Janet Yellen
Noticeably absent, at least in my opinion: King Charles III, although he’s only been king for, what, three months or so? He’ll probably get more mention in 2023, especially with his coronation (and the corresponding calls of “Why are they spending so much money on this?”).
I’m more surprised that Putin isn’t on the list, for all the reasons people were discussing at the beginning of this thread. He has most definitely had a major impact of world events this year.
It should be Putin just like it should have been Osama in 2001 but it will be Zelensky. I have long believed that Time should just change their criteria and give to whoever has influenced the world for the better in their opinion. Effectively that is what it mostly is. Perhaps Putin himself who won in 2007 is the last tough pick they have made though I am not sure that Putin did anything particularly newsworthy that year.
The really tough pick was Khomeini in 1979, all the more impressive because it would have been after the start of the hostage crisis. Apparently it generated a backlash and Time has shied from making overly controversial picks since. Which is fine but they just need to be open and explicitly change their criteria to make it more of an award.
The goal is to sell magazines (they still have a magazine, right?). People don’t want to read about Putin. People would want to read about Zelensky. The US Supreme Court would be an interesting choice but really hard to cover. There are really only six people who matter. Half of America thinks they are villains and half of America thinks they are heroes. How do you write that story? Liz Cheney would be interesting because you can paint her as principled, highlight her conservative values, note the impact the 1/6 Committee had on the midterm election and maybe makes a story that most of America would want to read even if not everyone agrees with her. She will hopefully be a winner of the Profiles in Courage Award. There hasn’t been a worthier candidate in a long time. Elon Musk is certainly a name that would sell issues and there’s no end of things to talk about this year. I would bet on Zelensky though. I think dalj42 was right on the money, which was a pretty bold stance to take in February.
Right there is the reason that there are no more tough picks. You don’t “win” Time Person of the Year. It’s not an award. It’s a journalistic assessment of the most influential newsmaker - or that’s what it was. But people continue to view it as an award, and get upset when undeserving people “win” it, so they go with the safer choices.
I stopped being invested in the Person of the Year choice when they chose Giuliani over Bin Laden in 2001.
Yeah even if we’re still going with “Evil people can win” Zelensky is a shoe-in regardless. If Putin had just rolled right over the Ukraine Putin should win, but considering not only were they repulsed they’re now gaining ground Zelensky should win for keeping Ukraine still in the news cycle 10 months later.
Even by the old standard of “it’s not an award, just a recognition of who had the biggest impact on the news”, it’s still not Putin. “Evil brutal dictator invades smaller neighboring nation” is a big story, sure, but it’s rather dog-bites-man. “Small nation successfully fights off evil brutal dictator of much larger nation” is what makes it really remarkable.
Really? They couldn’t have found someone else to round out the list? I mean I don’t have anything against her personally but I can’t recall anything that she’s done in the last year that was particularly news worthy.
Also conspicuously absent from this list is Garland, although way behind Zelenskyy, is still a better choice than about half the people on the list.
