Vladimir Putin is Person of the Year

Time magazine has selected Russian President Vladimir Putin as Time 's Person of the Year. The editors explain why they chose Putin here:

In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and green became the new red, white and blue; when the combat in Iraq showed signs of cooling but Baghdad's politicians showed no signs of statesmanship; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer's Olympic Games with its embarrassment at shipping toxic toys around the world; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga—one nation that had fallen off our mental map, led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century.

Russia lives in history—and history lives in Russia. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union cast an ominous shadow over the world. It was the U.S.'s dark twin. But after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia receded from the American consciousness as we became mired in our own polarized politics. And it lost its place in the great game of geopolitics, its significance dwarfed not just by the U.S. but also by the rising giants of China and India. That view was always naive. Russia is central to our world—and the new world that is being born. It is the largest country on earth; it shares a 2,600-mile (4,200 km) border with China; it has a significant and restive Islamic population; it has the world's largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and a lethal nuclear arsenal; it is the world's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia; and it is an indispensable player in whatever happens in the Middle East. For all these reasons, if Russia fails, all bets are off for the 21st century. And if Russia succeeds as a nation-state in the family of nations, it will owe much of that success to one man, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

No one would label Putin a child of destiny. The only surviving son of a Leningrad factory worker, he was born after what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War, in which they lost more than 26 million people. The only evidence that fate played a part in Putin's story comes from his grandfather's job: he cooked for Joseph Stalin, the dictator who inflicted ungodly terrors on his nation.

When this intense and brooding KGB agent took over as President of Russia in 2000, he found a country on the verge of becoming a failed state. With dauntless persistence, a sharp vision of what Russia should become and a sense that he embodied the spirit of Mother Russia, Putin has put his country back on the map. And he intends to redraw it himself. Though he will step down as Russia's President in March, he will continue to lead his country as its Prime Minister and attempt to transform it into a new kind of nation, beholden to neither East nor West.

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. Whether he becomes more like the man for whom his grandfather prepared blinis—who himself was twice TIME's Person of the Year—or like Peter the Great, the historical figure he most admires; whether he proves to be a reformer or an autocrat who takes Russia back to an era of repression—this we will know only over the next decade. At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.

The interview with Putin is here.

The editors note that the title of Person of the Year is not an honor, and I personally don't pay much attention to the announcement.

The full list of finalists is here, a listing which includes General David Petraeus.

Bill O'Reilly says Petraeus is "The Factor" person of the year:

On Wednesday, Time magazine will announce its person of the year. And on its Web site, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is the leading vote getter. Memo to Time: No.

Al Gore is also a crowd favorite because of his global warming campaign. Ahmadinejad getting some attention. But again, he would not be a good choice and Time knows it.

Now "The Factor's" Person of the Year must meet some very strict requirements. The person must have done something extraordinary, must be a world player, and must have changed history in some way. That is our yardstick.

And so, "The Factor" person of the year is General David Petraeus, who has turned a disastrous military situation in Iraq into a possible victory in less than a year. You will remember how the general got worked over by some Congress people, how many folks said publicly the so-called "surge" in Iraq would not work.

Well, they were wrong. Violence is now at the lowest levels since the conflict began in 2003. —Obviously, a stunning turn around in less than a year.

As "Talking Points" has stated, there are Americans who desperately want the USA to lose in Iraq. Some of those people are in the media. So reporting on the surge has been sparse to say the least.

The hate-Bush crowd simply will never admit anything good can come from the Iraq conflict. These people are bitter, dishonest, and of course, damaging to America.

A fair amount of people can oppose the war in Iraq yet want to see their country succeed in that place. There's no question that a stable Iraq is good for the world because it provides a bulwark against Islamic terrorism and Iranian expansion.

The cost has been great. We all know that. In suffering and cash. And the Iraqi government is still a mess. But General Petraeus, backed by a brave and professional U.S. military, has restored much order, largely defeated the Iraqi A Qaeda thugs, and at least given the good people of that country a chance to prosper. General David Petraeus is "The Factor" person of the year by a wide margin.

Petraeus is the "American Power" person of the year as well.