Time Magazine Person of the Year: KARL ROVE? [View All]

[Crankie Avalon]

Karl Rove in Running for Time's Person of the Year

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - White House adviser Karl Rove topped the unofficial list of contenders for Time's 2004 Person of the Year, according to a panel assembled by the magazine on Tuesday to debate the question.

Along with Rove, widely credited as the architect behind President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election, other candidates suggested by the panel included the president himself and filmmakers Mel Gibson and Michael Moore.

Time does not prepare or publish a formal list of nominees. Instead, the weekly magazine said its editors choose the person of the year after significant reporting by the staff.

The selection may well be none of the names suggested at Tuesday's panel, the editors said. The choice remains secret until it appears, this year, on the Dec. 20 issue cover.

In the meantime, the selection becomes a parlor game in America to guess who fits the criteria of "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse."

The person also must be alive, the editors said.

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