I just updated my Sportsperson of the Year post over on The Game Room, so I thought I would start the Time POTY discussion while I was at it.
I am going to go with my original thought: the President-Elect, whoever that may be.
If Harris wins, it’s almost a certainty, and the only question would be, do they include Walz as well? (My guess: no - it would take away from Harris’s “moment.”)
However, if Trump wins, would Time think that naming him would result in a Washington Post-style backlash? I don’t think so. Besides, he would be “the most newsworthy person of the year,” especially after the assassination attempt.
I think it’s pretty clear that Time wouldn’t pick a highly influential, but also infamous, person in this era. They’d get tremendous PR backlash, even if such a person did meet their stated criteria.
In 2001, that person would have been Osama bin Laden. But, being highly infamous, they instead picked then-Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani.
Here is a list of Presidential election years where the elected President did not win:
1996 (Clinton #2) - David Ho, pioneer in AIDS research
1988 (G.W. Bush) - “Planet of the Year” Earth
1984 (Reagan #2) - Peter Ueberroth (head of the 1984 LA Olympic Organizing Committee); note Reagan had won in 1983
1968 (Nixon #1) - The Apollo 8 Astronauts
1960 (Kennedy) - U.S. Scientists, although Kennedy did win in 1961
1956 (Eisenhower #2) - Hungarian Freedom Fighters
1952 (Eisenhower #1) - Queen Elizabeth II
1944 (FDR #4) - Dwight Eisenhower
1940 (FDR #3) - Winston Churchill
1936 (FDR #2) - Wallis Warfield Simpson
1928 (Hoover) Walter Chrysler
If it’s not the winner of the 2024 Presidential election, it could be Benjamin Netanyahu. They could give it to Netanyahu/Sinwar, but I’m not sure Sinwar can win now, being dead and all.
More likely, his PAC would order a bazillion copies, then “autograph” them and offer them to his minions for “a small donation (fine print: every week for the next four years)”
The announcement will be made on Thursday 12/12. Here are the ten finalists:
Kamala Harris
HRH Catherine, Princess of Wales
Elon Musk
Yulia Navalnaya (wife of Alexei Navalny)
Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerome Powell (chair, U.S. Federal Reserve)
Joe Rogan
Claudia Sheinbaum (president of Mexico)
Donald Trump
Mark Zuckerberg
I’m sticking by my original choice - President-elect Trump
…wow. A shortlist of some of the most horrible people on the planet. Including one person who is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. And based on the criteria of “had the biggest impact—for good or for ill—on the world over the previous 12 months”, they are likely to win.
Not much suspense here; of course they will pick Trump. Not only will they sell a lot of copies, they will avoid having Trump’s IRS audit their top execs.
You know, if there’s a case to be made that Harris could’ve won against Trump if Biden had stepped down in January instead of in July — such that he’s the difference between selecting Harris from that list and selecting Trump — and then you simply add in everything the Biden administration, well, did between January and now, it seems like there’s a decent argument that you could make for the guy.
