With five weeks to go before declaring its Person of the Year, Time magazine gathered some of its New York editors and writers for lunch with invited guests to debate potential winners in public.
The consensus front-runners: President Bush, not surprisingly, along with a “generic” alternative: “The Terrorist.”
Time editors had considered Osama bin Laden a year ago, but “thought he had died,” said Managing Editor Jim Kelly, so the magazine named Rudolph Giuliani.
Although bin Laden himself did not seem likely to get the nod in this year’s magazine, Time would not steer away from spotlighting the impact of terrorists around the world, even if that might anger some readers.
The diverse list includes Eminem, Saddam Hussein, Martha Stewart, FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley, Yasser Arafat, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, among others.
The issue hits newsstands Dec. 23.
