At Least National Review Got It Right

TIME has named its "person" of the year: Vladimir Putin. The editors sound a little defensive about the selection:

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership.

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At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.

National Review selected its own "man" of the year, and unlike TIME, chose someone who deserved the honor: General David Petraeus:

Gen. David Petraeus [is] commander of the multinational force in Iraq and architect of the surge strategy that is turning the tide in the war. Petraeus formulated a brilliant counterinsurgency plan. He executed it with care and diligence. And when much of the country didn’t want to notice the security gains that the surge had wrought, he took the national media spotlight to defend his strategy and his honor. In all this, he was nothing less than masterly.

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For making victory in Iraq look possible again, and for pulling a nation back from the brink of civil war, Petraeus deserves the praise and thanks of all Americans. With or without a Time cover, he is the man of the year.

Barbara Walters, for anyone who missed it and cares, annointed Harry Potter author J.K.Rowlings as the most "fascinating person" of 2007.

Baba Wawa and TIME remind us why we need National Review. "It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."