The Top Ten Finalists for Person of the Year in 2013

[Norm dePlume]

The Top Ten Finalists for Person of the Year in 2013

Bashar Assad, President of Syria

Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder

Ted Cruz, Texas Senator

Miley Cyrus, Singer

Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church

Barack Obama, President of the United States

Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services

Edward Snowden, N.S.A. Leaker

Edith Windsor, Gay rights activist

TIME will announce their choice on Wednesday morning. Who do you think they'll choose? Who would you choose (feel free to pick someone not on the list)?

[Norm dePlume]

I think they'll go with Pope Francis. I would pick Snowden.

[Adam]

I think they'll go with Pope Francis. I would pick Snowden.

I think so, too. The criteria, IIRC, is "the person who has made the most difference in the news" or something like that (which is why Hitler got MotY in 1939 or whenever it was). I'd say Francis probably fits that bill.

[Norm dePlume]

Pope Francis is in the news a lot for the person that Pope Francis is.

Snowden's impact in the news has very little to do with the person Snowden is, but it has a lot more repercussions, like, for example, this.

[Adam]

OK, the exact criteria is "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."

Snowden may fit that criteria, though I note that Julian Assange has apparently never made the short list, and I would think that he affected the news and people's lives between 2010 and 2012 more than Snowden has this year.


I dunno. Tough call there I guess. At least as far as Americans are concerned, Snowden has had a direct effect on the news that directly affects a whole lot of Americans, though less so those around the world. Francis has had less of a direct effect on Americans per se, but he's clearly making a very big effect on Catholics worldwide.

[Norm dePlume]

Yeah, Pope Francis the person is way more important than Ed Snowden the person. No sarcasm there.

[phillygirl]

This is always difficult for me, as I tend to think of the positive when thinking of Person of the Year, despite the fact that that is not necessarily the criteria.

I think I would choose Pope Francis as I believe he has had a catalytic effect on Catholics and Christians worldwide. In many ways he is similar to Pope JPII, and it's wonderful to see the positive reception he has gotten from Christians and non-Christians alike. I think Christianity as a whole has needed this "shot in the arm" and even the process by which he became pope is rather newsworthy.

[Norm dePlume]

The Pope is a catalytic converter.

[phillygirl]

The Pope is a catalytic converter.

You know, it's those types of comments that are going to get you voted off this island.

[Adam]

It's Pope Francis.

[Billy Jingo]