TIME Magazine - What Happened?

I used to read TIME Magazine regularly when I was a kid back in NY. My dad had a subscription and I thought it had some cool articles. I also read National Geographic from cover to cover. I also started reading the NY Times as a kid and never stopped. But to stop patting myself on the back for just a second... I just saw the TIME homepage and saw that they just named W their Person of the Year. How is that possible?

For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year.

I think it should read more like

For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a record number of voters to vote against him, by implementing policies in the past four years were so horrible and damaging to set the general balance of the world off kilter by about a decade, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of Shame.

It took me a few minutes whether or not to actually read the article, but I decided to read it and boy was I disgusted

As he says this, George W. Bush is about to set a political record. The first TIME poll since the election has his approval rating at 49%. Gallup has it at 53%, which doesn't sound bad unless you consider that it's the lowest December rating for a re-elected President in Gallup's history. That is not a great concern, however, since he has run his last race, and it is not a surprise to a President who tends to measure his progress by the enemies he makes. "Sometimes you're defined by your critics," he says. "My presidency is one that has drawn some fire, whether it be at home or around the world. Unfortunately, if you're doing big things, most of the time you're never going to be around to see them [to fruition], whether it be cultural change or spreading democracy in parts of the world where people just don't believe it can happen. I understand that. I don't expect many short-term historians to write nice things about me."
...
In the meantime, the lessons Bush draws from his victory are the ones that matter most. The man who in 2000 promised to unite and not divide now sounds as though he is prepared to leave as his second-term legacy the Death of Compromise. "I've got the will of the people at my back," he said at the moment of victory. From here on out, bipartisanship means falling in line: "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." Whatever spirit of cooperation that survives in his second term may have to be found among his opponents; he has made it clear he's not about to change his mind as he takes on Social Security and the tax code in pursuit of his "ownership society." So unfolds the strange and surprising and high-stakes decade of Bush.

And that, my friends, is why TIME Magazine named this guy their Person of the Year.

The hell with TIME and their stupid AOL owning company.