I would have to agree with Marc Ambinder.
This year, there is only one logical choice: Edward Snowden.
As of now, Ed's getting smoked by... Miley Cyrus. 3 to one.
In second place is Narendra Modi, who is:
the 14th and current Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party
...and evidently is very, very popular. Who knew?
:::::To continue past the heavily encrypted croissant, travel downwards:::::
A 29-year-old managed to kneecap the most powerful institution on the face of the planet. His weapons were the secrets collected by its most powerful intelligence agency, and his methods were taught to him by secret-keepers themselves. More than health care reform, more than the budget fight, more than the crisis in Syria, the prestige and power of the United States has been most damaged by Snowden's revelations.
In many ways, I think the Snowden revelations are the largest source of background noise and the functional cause of President Obama's falling approval ratings. They were, of course, the direct catalyst for a significant (and perhaps quite productive) public debate about intelligence, technology, and power surveillance.
The arguments against Snowden selection fall into two categories: It would be immoral to reward a possible traitor with such a recognition, and Snowden's revelations have not yet led to any measurable retraction of the secret state. The moral question isn't operative. It doesn't matter for this discussion whether you think Snowden is a hero, a true patriot, a brave whistleblower, or a villain, or whether you think he is a narcissist who managed to co-opt the privacy rights movement, or whether you think he is a pawn in a Russian spy game. It does matter that he is an ideological entrepreneur, one who exploited NSA's technological and cultural blind spots to create a single-point failure that has cascaded around the world.
In my opinion, I think the administration's
reaction to the Snowden revelations were far more damaging than the revelations themselves. Not firing James Clapper was a big mistake - it gives the impression that nothing is going to change, and that all the talk of reform is just that - talk . THAT is what leads to the loss of trust.
Who's YOUR choice for TIME Person of The Year?
Take the poll below too, and defend your candidate ruthlessly...
I know...it's pretty silly and meaningless. Miley Cyrus?
EDIT: the poll below should have read "Person" of the year, not "Man" - my bad.