Mad for Vlad! Time magazine officially unveiled its annual "Person of the Year" this morning, and it's....Vladimir Putin! I know! Remember that huge thing he did this year that was awesome? Time does, but more importantly, he's not Al Gore — the presumptive nominee based on Nobel/Oscar/identifying and spurring action on an issue which is surely the most globally pressing of our time, with the possible exception of what we may be hiding in our shoes at airports. But! Al Gore was boring, expected; Putin is fresh! And exciting! And surprising — so surprising that he was barely even mentioned at this years' POY panel, except offhandedly by Brian Williams as part of the triumvirate of crazy dictators with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pervez Musharraf, who was looking like he could have been a pretty scary Person of the Year himself around that time. Anyhow, the important thing is, it's not Al Gore, though he got to be runner up. There's a 2000 election joke in there somewhere! (Don't worry, Al, it's not like Putin was ever going to get the Nobel Peace Prize).
So: What does this mean? Well, for one thing, probably more David Remnick on the news! Maybe statements from the candidates, after they're done commenting on America's Top Teen Pregnancy (Jamie Lynn Spears = Political Lightning Rod, mark our words). Otherwise, the good news is it will shower attention on Putin and Russia, which, as Remnick pointed out on "NBC Nightly News" last month, we ignore at our peril. He's worth re-quoting here:
We should pay attention to what's going on in Russia for any number of reasons. First of all it's a gigantic country, with a gigantic land mass, with nuclear weapons, with enormous economic resources, its importance in geopolitical terms is fantastic -- it borders on Iran and Central Asia, it borders Europe -- it couldn't be more important. But our eye has been off the ball essentially for quite a long time (a) because the Cold War ended and (b) because we've been so obsessed, for obvious reasons, on South Asia and the Middle East .
Time's Adi Ignatius sheds some light in the cover piece, creating a pretty awesome picture of Putin as one hell of a villain at the beginning (cold stare; compact, coiled-strength body; tightly-controlled face, save for veins on his forehead that look "ready to pop." Yikes). Thank goodness, somewhere in there lies a softie: His favorite Beatles song is "Yesterday."
Speaking of yesterday, that's when I noted that Time seemed underwhelmed by its own list, including Putin, whom they all but called a lame duck. Gore they red-herringed as doing his heavy POY lifting in 2006, and second runner-up J.K. Rowling they damned with this faint praise: "Hard to argue she was the most important person of 2007." But apparently not hard to argue that she was the third-most important person! Well, the important thing is, God's Green Earth got at least some recognition. Hopefully this edition will help save the environment. Now, get on out there, Time, and sell some magazines! As I always say, if a tree is standing it means circ must be down.
A Tsar Is Born [Time]
Earlier:
POY Vey! Time's Snoozy 2007 Noms [ETP]
Even Earlier, and Totally Wrong:
God's Green Earth Pretty Much A Lock For Time's Person Of The Year [ETP]
