Person of the Year II

Continuing on with the Time Person of the Year. They often have good choices, but many times (e.g., this year) way, way off. We're up to 1969.

1969 - The Middle Americans - On a scale of 1 to 5, it's a 1. Recognizing several million people is the same as recognizing no one.

1970 - Willy Brandt - 3

1971 - Richard Nixon - 5

1972 - Richard Nixon / Henry Kissinger - 5. Dick Nixon, first back to back year winner.

1973 - John Sirica - 2. Another Dick Nixon related win, but not in a positive way.

1974 - King Faisal - 4

1975 - American Women - 1. Lame. (See 1969)

1976 - Jimmy Carter - 5. Presidents pretty much always get a 5.

1977 - Anwar Sadat - 5

1978 - Deng Xiaoping - 4

1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini - 5

1980 - Ronald Reagan - 5

1981 - Lech Walesea - 4

1982 - The Computer - 1 Excuse me. Disqualified for being a non-human.

1983 - Ronald Reagan / Yuri Andropov - 5 / 2

1984 - Peter Ueberroth - 1

1985 - Deng Xiaoping - 4

1986 - Corazon Aquino - 2. Important to the Philippines, but the Philippines themselves is not that important.

1987 - Mikael Gorbachev - 5. Reagan gets too much credit for ending the cold war. It was him and all the presidents before him and maybe Gorbachev more than any of them.

1988 - The Endangered Earth - 1. Everyone in the world got a share of person of the year with this one.

1989 - Mikael Gorbachev - 5

1990 - George HW Bush - 5

1991 - Ted Turner - 2

1992 - Bill Clinton - 5

1993 - The Peacemakers - 2

1994 - Pope John Paul II - 4

1995 - Newt Gingrich - 4

1996 - David Ho - 1 A scientist that no one has heard of then or since.

1997 - Andrew Grove - 1. A businessman no one has heard of then or since.

1998 - Bill Clinton / Ken Starr - 5/2

1999 - Jeff Bezos - 2

2000 - George W. Bush - 5

2001 - Rudy Giuliani - Rudy could have won again this year. It would have been the longest span between wins.

2002 - The Whistleblowers - 2. This could have been a winner this year also.

2003 - The American Soldier - 1

2004 - George W Bush - 5

2005 - The Good Samaritans - 1

2006 - You - 1. Choices like this make me angry. So very angry.

2007 - Vladimir Putin - 5

2008 - Barak Obama - 5 Time seems to like to pick presidents the year of their election. They don't even become president until the following January.

2009 - Ben Bernanke - 5. Underrated. He might have kept us out of another great depression.

2010 - Mark Zuckerberg - 1

2011 - The Protester - 1

2012 - Barak Obama - 5

2013 - Pope Francis - 3

2014 - Ebola Fighters - 2

2015 - Angela Merkel - 3

2016 - Donald Trump - 5

2017 - The Silence Breakers - 1

2018 - The Guardians - 1

2019 - Greta Thunberg - 1

This feels like it took forever. I didn't know there were so many when I got into it, but then I felt I had to finish. So we end with three straight 1's. This year Nancy Pelosi was a runner up. She would have been a 4 as far as I'm concerned. The actual winner is a teenager. Let's agree to disagree.