Time's pick for Person of the Year: An Artful Dodgeby JohnHuang2
I can only imagine the pickle liberal editors at Time, scurrying for their 2002 Person of the Year, found themselves in this time around. Oh, they knew exactly who that Person was all right, but couldn't bring themselves to admit it. Not on their lives.
Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall during all the heated, tortuous, silly back-and-forths?
Yet, all the while, staring right at them, a colossal Elephant standing in the corner of the newsroom. This year's person of the year was so ludicrously obvious, so-plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face unmistakable, it's inconceivable how Time thought it could get away with its risibly dopey selection. Their 'Let's-Not-Get-Our-Liberal-Base-Mad-At-Us' choice doesn't pass even the laugh test.
The Elephant in the Time newsroom? I'll tell you in a sec -- though I know I don't need to tell you, which is, after all, precisely the point.
But first, let me tell you who, for reasons so simple they boggle the mind, wasn't person, or persons, of the year, Time magazine notwithstanding.
 GREGORY HEISLER FOR TIME
THE WHISTLE-BLOWERS: Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom; (left to right), Coleen Rowley, the FBI; and Sherron Watkins, Enron
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With all due respect to Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins, Time's Persons of the Year 2002, this triumvirate of 'whistleblowers' were not the people with the greatest impact on shaping the year's events -- Time's bench mark. Media celebrity prima donnas, perhaps, but Persons of the year? Ah, don't think so.
Proof? Well, here we are, at the close of calender year 2002, and who, other than voracious news-junkies, even vaguely remembers their names? Take a poll and I'd be surprised if even 5% know who they are.
So lemme see if I understand: Cooper of WorldCom, Rowley of FBI and Watkins of Enron were so pivotal, so crucial, so sine qua non in steering and shaping our world this year, that few of us even recall who the heck they are? Time must think Americans are blithering idiots. Gee whiz, what am I saying? -- Time does.
By what standard, moreover, do cog-in-the-machine bit-players, either complicit or irrelevant in the grand scheme, become glorious world-class "whistleblowers", a la Time?
If corporate/institutional shenanigans framed events 2002, and if Person of the Year had to be a woman, heck why not Martha Stewart, the poster gal of corporate fraud herself?
Time says that "these women," their famed 'whistleblowers', "were people who did the right thing just by doing their jobs rightly -- which means ferociously, with eyes open and with bravery the rest of us always hope we have and may never know if we do."
We interrupt this love-fest to bring you some special facts (which, somehow, seem never to get in the way at Time): Er, Watkins and Cooper were, far from 'whistleblowers', enablers at best, aiders-and-abetters at worst, keeping the lid jealously tight on inside company flimflam/chicanery/theft -- 'creative accounting' shell games which came to light, ultimately not by whistleblowing, but when public disclosure became unavoidable and companies collapsed.
In neither case was law enforcement informed, though the Financial Fraud Detection and Disclosure Act required both Cooper and Watkins to do so, not at a time or a place of their choosing, but at the point of discovery. Cooper and Watkins may fit Time's 'whistleblower' definition, but not Mirriam-Webster's.
As for Rowley, the Minneapolis FBI staff lawyer, beyond a secret 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller and to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, not much. Whistleblower, perhaps. The biggest molder and shaper of events in our lives 2002? Get real.
The real 2002 Person of the Year?
No-brainer answer: President George W. Bush. Whether it's shaping debate or global events 2002, no other figure even comes close to this U.S. Commander-In-Chief.
A huge media hullabaloo opened the year, set off by Bush's 'Axis-Of-Evil' State-Of-The-Union Address in January. The 'Bush-is-an-idiot' media elitists -- disparaging, patronizing, demeaning as ever -- rabidly ridiculed inclusion of North Korea in that 'axis'.
'Is Bush stupid, or what?' they sneered. 'What the heck does Pyongyang have to do with Baghdad or Tehran, anyway? Bush is a know-nothing, drooling buffoon, and if this 'axis-of-evil' nonsense doesn't convince you, nothing will!' they raged.
The year closes, I don't need to tell you, with Bush fully vindicated and his adversaries -- frustrated, confounded, perplexed as ever -- wiping the usual egg off their faces.
Bush, nearly two years into his Presidency, still rides on top of the world, a tide of sustained popularity almost unprecedented in presidential history. The midterm elections became, not the mortal body blow his enemies predicted, but a stunning personal and political triumph, a powerful re-affirmation of his 2000 victory over Gore.
The story of 2002, again and again and again, is how Bush, at every turn, decisively out-maneuvers his enemies, who have yet to lay a glove on el hombre de Tejas and continue to mis-underestimate him.
A wave of corporate scandals will, said his critics, sink Bush's presidency faster than Nixon's Watergate. Never happened.
The 2002 collapse of the stock market had, much to Democrat chagrin, zero political effect on Bush's standing.
Reason?
Bush doesn't just react to events, he leverages his vigorous and forceful command of the stage to frame issues and shape opinion with almost unheard of alacrity, leaving foes befuddled and frustrated. Undergirding the dynamism and vigor, the energy and spirit he brings to the presidency is a trust and respect, a bonding and public affection for George W. Bush almost unique in its dimensions.
This President -- confident, unflinching, assertive, impassioned, tenacious -- keeps making history, raising the bar on presidential performance standards, building a mighty legacy future historians will marvel over for years.
When America speaks, thanks to the leadership of George W. Bush, the world, whether it likes it or not, now listens.
How this President, overcoming determined resistance at every level, at home and abroad, managed to bump Iraq to the top of the geopolitical agenda illustrates the point perfectly.
Saddam Hussein, some media pundits suggest, should've been Time's 2002 Man of the year, given the big splash from Baghdad on global events these past 12 months.
They still don't get it: If not for Bush, we wouldn't even be discussing Saddam in the first place.
We've talked a lot about what's been in the news, now let's talk about something that hasn't been in the news (i.e., conspicuous by its absence): Another terror attack on U.S. soil.
Most experts find that surprising. Sometime in '02, they warned, terrorists would strike again -- another spectacular terrorist event was inevitable. Never happened. Imagine had they been right? Think of how different, how grim 2002, looking back, would be remembered.
Now, let's do something interesting: Let's turn Time's criteria around on its head: The absence of another 9/11 is, itself, big news.
But was it just coincidence?
Fat chance.
Bush's dauntless resolve to fight terror and those that sponsor terror -- no matter what it takes, or how long -- has earned him the unflinching trust and confidence of the American people, and it's why Bush's my pick for Man of the Year.
Memo to Time: Next year, save yourself embarrassment and follow this simple rule: When picking your Person of the Year, just remember you ain't fooling anyone.
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Anyway, that's..
My two cents..
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