Hillary Clinton. She ended up being a hell of a good candidate, doing far better than anyone expected, including me, and is now fixing to become Secretary of State. The topper is that she helped Barack Obama win by forcing him to become a better campaigner. (good lord!! I may upchuck last week's Jack tacos!)
I'm over my problems with Hillary, which she brought on herself when she got desperate. I think she'll be a great Secretary of State and I agree she forced Obama to be a better campaigner. But it's ludicrous to say she did better than expected. She was the prohibitive favorite to be the next president and she absolutely blew it -- not by being a bad candidate (she was a very good one) but by running a historically terrible campaign. Her loss in the primaries was one of the greatest upsets in modern political history -- a perfect storm of mistakes and missteps.
Obama was probably the easiest choice the Time POY committee has ever had to make. Given their criteria -- if there was anyone else even considered, it was just to pass the time until lunch.
I don't think she ran a historical terrible campaign by any means. Rudy Giuliani ran a historically terrible campaign while Hillary Clinton was still winning states even up to the end. I will agree though that she made some serious mistakes and she didn't do better than expected when expected was she would win it all.
Worth mentioning, two of Charlie Gibson's Persons of the Year. These guys are awesome. Video from February Story
