i work at time inc. (publisher of time mag)... i can guarantee you bush is not 'man of the year' as a marketing ploy. whatever upside the mag will see on newsstand sales will be limited (it's only a weekly), and that's the only short-term variable that is ever influenced by a cover.

it's a nice thought that time would pander to the 51%, but if you'd actually look at their circ, they're doing quite well in the red states already.

yes, but I will never buy Time again. Of course, I always did like Newsweek better and never bought Time in the first place, so I guess it's not that impressive a proclamation. So nevermind. That is all.

Time has a long-standing tradition of picking the winner of a Presidential election to be its man of the year. It's not unbroken, but it's pretty consistent. This was not a surprise.

I made a different choice, of course. Just to be contrary.

Mike, this year has brought conservative distrust of mainstream media to a head. I think if they picked someone other than Bush (and especially if they picked Rove, which, I think, would be seen as a dig at Bush the puppet), the reaction from the red states (and those of us living in blu states who are Bush supporters nonetheless) would be negative. It's a smart move by Time in the long run to not be associated with the mainstream media outlets that failed the bias test this year.

They with a weak choice on many of the years regardless. In the old days they used to be willing to choose evil people, so in 2001 it obviously should have been Bin Laden, but instead they went with Giuliani to end things on an uplifiting note instead of simply choosing the most influential person.

my point is that you suggest time is a magazine in desperate need to dissociate itself with the rest of the mainstream media in order to avoid conservative distrust. that's just not true- in truth time is about as confrontational as usa today. i don't see one cover as much of an indication of anything... of course, it could've been al-zarqaqi, who got 5 pages for himself, but i'd agree with eric's take on the selections.

how to make a blogger write about what you want them to write about, pay them and they will do what ever you want them to.

the ones that would accept the money are two small to make a differeence, unless someone sees it in five different small places, and the someone big links them all at once.

In other words do what the fan club for that country chick did and work from the bottom up, it should only take a couple hundred of bloggers, and you could locate them through the eco system (hit count section).

Oh and i am for sell by the way

I laught every time I hear that bush won with a majority.

296 million americans
59 million voted for mr. bush

thats 20%

Not a majority.

Is this William Buckley debating above me?

This also means none of your American Idol heroes got majorities either: your whole world just came crashing down. Remember, slash the razor vertically not horizontally.

Wow, nothing gets past Serps, maybe we should make him Homeland Security Director