President Obama named as TIME magazine's 'Person of the Year'

Afrik Update

               Obama was given the honor for the second time in four years

       

President Barack Obama has been named TIME's Person of the Year for 2012, allowing him the honour for the second time in four years.

The magazine cited the president's historic re-election last month as symbolic of the nation's changing demographics amid the backdrop of high unemployment and other challenges.

'He's basically the beneficiary and the author of a kind of new America - a new demographic, a new cultural America that he is now the symbol of,' TIME editor Rick Stengel said as he announced the choice on the Today show on Wednesday.

'He won re-election despite a higher unemployment rate than anybody's had to face in basically 70 years. He's the first Democrat to actually win two consecutive terms with over 50 per cent of the vote. That's something we haven't seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.'

The 'Person of the Year' accolade is given to the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and news throughout the year for good or for ill.

Obama was named as Person of the Year in 2008, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and 'The Protester' filling the years in between.

This year, Obama edged out Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education, for the honour. She was named as runner up.

ON TIME: THE LAST DECADE OF 'PERSON OF THE YEAR'

2012 Barack Obama - President of the United States

2011 The Protester - Those involved in demos from the Arab Spring to the 'Occupy' movement

2010 Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook founder and CEO

2009 Ben Bernanke - Federal Reserve chairman

2008 Barack Obama - Then president-elect of the United States

2007 Vladimir Putin - Then president of Russia

2006 You - As a contributor to social media sites like Facebook and YouTube

2005 The Good Samaritans - Specifically Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates

2004 George W. Bush - Then president of the United States

2003 The American Soldier - Then fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

2002 The Whistleblowers  - Specifically Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Sherron Watkins of Enron

             


Source:Mailonline