Time magazine on Wednesday named Russian President Vladimir Putin its 2007 "Person of the Year."
The nod went to the Russian leader because of Putin's "extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability," said Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor.
What can I say? Our media elites love their foreign despots. Our elites confuse sullen, hopeless, passivity in the face of massive state power for "stability."
Putin has been happy to grab more power while he is popular. But the power he gets now will not be relinquished should the people change their mind about Putin.
And it does no good to say that the man of the year designation is not an "honor" but rather a recognition of his impact. There is no objective calculation involved here. Time decided that Putin should be named and all their biases came into play here.
The designation, based on subjective criteria, could have noted the achievements of anybody else without the adverse impact this non-honor will have on the promotion of democracy.
Putin will see it as an honor and so will much of the world. This is shameful. Remember, corpses are stable. Don't overrate stability.
