Time Names Bush Person of the Year

After winning reelection and “reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style,” President Bush for the second time was chosen as Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

The magazine’s editors chose Bush “for sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes -- and ours -- on his faith in the power of leadership.”

In an interview with the magazine, Bush attributed his victory over Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry to his foreign policy and the wars he began in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The election was about the use of American influence,” Bush said.

After a grueling campaign, Bush remains a polarizing figure in America and around the world, and that’s part of the reason the magazine selected him, said Managing Editor Jim Kelly.

“Many, many Americans deeply wish he had not won,” Kelly said in a telephone interview. “And yet he did.”

In the Time article, Bush said he relished that some people disliked him.

“I think the natural instinct for most people in the political world is that they want people to like them,” Bush said. “On the other hand, I think sometimes I take kind of a delight in who the critics are.”

Bush joins six other presidents who have twice been named the magazine’s Person of the Year: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower (first as a general), Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Franklin D. Roosevelt holds the record, being selected three times by the editors.

Kelly said Bush had changed dramatically since he was named Person of the Year in 2000 after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency.

“He is not the same man,” Kelly said. “He’s a much more resolute man. He is personally as charming as ever, but I think the kind of face he’s shown to the American public is one of much, much greater determination.”

The magazine gives the title to the person who it says had the greatest effect, good or bad, over the year.

Kelly said other candidates included Michael Moore and Mel Gibson, “because in different ways their movies tapped into deep cultural streams,” and political strategist Karl Rove, who is widely credited with engineering Bush’s win. Kelly said choosing Rove alone would have taken away from the credit he said Bush deserved.