Time Person of the Year prediction thread

Here are my not-that-thought-out predictions. Post your own or shred mine to pieces.

1. The Working Mother

I'm thinking this has to be the favorite. For one thing, Obama couldn't have won Tuesday without the support from college educated women. The "binders full of women" went viral in a way that no man could have predicted (and less meme-y, but no less viral, was Romney's promise to help women work a full workday AND cook for their husbands). The "having it all" debate was all the rage, and there's an entire corner of the internet that's invisible to most men that discusses work-life balance issues for women. The only thing that would keep me from putting money on this is their "Mom enough" cover with the breastfeeding 3-year-old, which may seem redundant.

2. Marissa Meyer

Not the second favorite, but I'm putting her here because she's an offshoot of #1, a mom/CEO. Then again, it's only Yahoo!

3. Tim Cook

Staying in the tech sector, how he guided Apple through Year 1 After Steve got a lot of attention. The product releases weren't as sexy, but he's still heading the biggest company in the universe, posting record profits. But then, Zuckerberg got the cover in 2010, so they may shy away from another geek.

4. The Gay Couple

Clean sweep in November with a blemish in May in North Carolina. Plus, 'Modern Family'.

5. Chris Christie, Mike Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo and/or Hurricane Sandy first responders

The darkhorse and sentimental choice, which Time likes.

6. Barack Obama

I don't know, he was probably the most newsworthy person this year. And the last. And the year before that. And so on.

7. The American Voter

Pretty good turnout, right?

Nate Silver? Silicon Valley hits the media, data wonk in, gossip pundit out.

The Gay Couple is a pretty good bet, I think.

Soon they will award it to "The People Of The Year", all those people who won it in past years and helped to make Time Person Of The Year what it is. Man, that award has fallen to the point where it is now worthless. I won it once and didn't even care.

That would've been my #8. Something about the mainstreaming of geeks and democratization of advanced stats. And what you said.

Well, if it's singular, the person of the year would be "The Time Magazine Subscriber."

You mean last year?

I think he means this:

Means he won it twice.

What's not being said much is that about 11 million fewer people voted in 2012 than 2008. Obama won with 9 million fewer votes than 2008, and Romney got 1.5 million fewer votes than McCain. That relative apathy I think makes this possibility kinda silly.

I say Chris Christie. He has been a strong undernote to the story of America this year, especially now with Sandy, but even before then, constantly being connected to the election.

Mario Monti

There is nobody else that can make the whole Western World stop and listen when he opens his mouth

I stand corrected. Though I don't think its insignificant that (attempts at) voter ID laws and the Citizens United decision seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect.

Overall turnout will be less than 2008 but not that much less. Washington and Oregon are still counting ballots since voters vote by mail. Arizona still has 500,000 provisional and early votes to count. California is way below their 2008 voting numbers, so I think they also have more to count.

A quick search of Google for pages dated 2 days after the election 4 years ago tells me the count was only 64.6 million to 56.9 million on that day. As you saw, the final was 69.5-59.9.

If you believe CNN, there are a ton of votes left to come. 31% more in California, 45% in Washington, 10% in Ohio, 10% in Colorado, 7% in Illinois, etc.

Also, youth voter and battleground state voter turnouts were as high, if not higher than 2008. So yeah, I'm happy to make a case for The New Voting Bloc or some sort of voter-themed PotY.

Good point. I remember in 2008 there was a lot of talk about how voter turnout was surprisingly less then expected in the days after the election. The final numbers, which didn't come in fully for weeks, showed that it was as high as expected.

My Bets are:

- Mother Nature (what with the storm and everything)
- Messi (as if I need to explain this)
- Michelle Obama & Moms (awesome your mama jokes)

Anthropomorphized Inanimate Concept of the Year?

Messi wouldn't surprise me, as a future PotY, but picking him in a year without a team title might be a hard sell to the US audience.

Last one is a good choice.

I go with Hispanic Voter.

But I still Hail Grimes!

Malala Yousufzai

Another one:
The Geek or The Nerd.

I know Zuck got the cover a couple of years ago, but sort of the brainy people taking over might be a story. Obvious one is Nate Silver but Sam Wang got attention for his poll analysis too, and then there's Louis C.K. and Questlove, who both had decent sized years in entertainment, and anti-bullying is a thing. It's broad, but they like to cast a wide net sometimes.

Also, Olympic-themed:
Usain Bolt
LeBron James
Mo Farrah/Jessica Ennis
Danny Boyle

I like the Geek/nerd angle ... Math > Gut, Science > Myth

They still make Time?