I’m throwing my vote in with Rudy. Talk about a comeback. He goes from embarrassment who’s alienated everybody to American superhero in just a few months.
Overall, I think that year-end retrospective issues for all the news magazines will be quite different. With all of the country’s mini-tragedies put back into their proper perspective (death of Dale Earnhardt, for example), they barely seems worth mentioning any more.
It comes down to the ESP v. Osama. I would predict the ESP will be selected with this photo on the cover.
If they go with Osama, it will be a more generic thing like “The Terrorist,” with a picture of a weapon or something similar on the cover. TIME will never put bin Laden’s picture on the cover of the issue, IMHO.
Britney could be a long shot.
Mohammed? Dead, maybe, but still the most influential person of the year.
How about Osama with Bert?
I’d say the three front runners are Guliani, Bush, and Bin Laden, in no particular order. Outside shots to go Vladimir Putin and Tony Blair. I can’t think of anyone else even on the radar map.
I think that’s unfair, elmwood. I think most Muslims would be offended by that statement, assuming you mean that Mohammed’s Islam (in the form of the terrorist attackers, or their actions, or their beliefs) had the most impact on us. Almost all Muslims maintain that what Bin Laden etc follow has hardly anything to do with real normal Islam because it is so extreme.
Ultimately, Time magazine is a business run by bean counters and surrounded by a city still grieving over the deaths of 6,000 innocent victims.
Key facts: a recession grips the nation, especially in the newspaper and magazine industry, where advertising revenues are collapsing and layoffs are becoming commonplace. Time’s editorial staff may believe OBL most deserving, but senior management realizes that naming him M.O.Y. might spark a backlash among their key clients.
My guess is they will play it safe and choose someone else–someone heroic, not satanic.
Considering that Bin Laden has been on the cover of TIME at least twice, I find that hard to believe.
sigh
Read the OP-they do NOT choose only men, or even people.