Person of the Year

Over at Letters in Bottles, Mike thinks Mahmud Ahmadinejad should have been Time's Person of the Year. I disagree, especially since he ended the year by getting rebuked in the vetting process by Iran's establishment and at the polls by voters. Ahmadinejad gives it a whirl, but Iran's presidents simply don't have the power to implement a major agenda.

If Time were to go with someone in the Middle East, the choice, unfortunately, would probably have to be Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Not only did his movement succeed in not losing a war with Israel, but he became a hero to many throughout the region, and recently succeeded in rallying massive demonstrations which threaten to bring down the government. In the Middle East today, he is both Nasser and Khomeini, appealing not only to Islamists but to Arab nationalists who see him as an effective leader.