"Soviet leader Josef Stalin was Time's Person of the Year in 1939 and 1942, 
German dictator Adolph Hitler in 1938, and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini 
in 1979."

[In light of the above, Time made a good choice, but if you want to know the 
real story on Giuliani see http://baltech.org/lederman/ because you certainly 
won't find it in Time]

Sunday December 23, 2001

New York's Giuliani Named Time's Person of the Year
By Patrick Rizzo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brash, outspoken, indefatigable Mayor Rudolph Giuliani 
(news - web sites), whose composure and compassion rallied New York and the 
nation after the Sept. 11 attacks, was named Time Magazine's Person of the 
Year on Sunday.

``This was about Sept. 11 and about how in the immediate aftermath of the 
attacks in those crucial hours, one person took emotional charge in a way 
that was extraordinary,'' Time Managing Editor Jim Kelly told Reuters.

``He led by emotion, not just by words and actions, and in an emotional year 
like this one, he deserved to be person of the year,'' Kelly said.

Giuliani, who is in the final days of his eight years as mayor of the United 
States' largest city, is Time Magazine's 76th Person of the Year. ``The 
person who most affected the news or our lives, for good or for ill, this 
year,'' said Time founder Henry Luce when he instituted in 1925 what has now 
become a national talking point each year.

President Bush (news - web sites), Time's 75th Person of the Year, made it 
to the short list again, along with America's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden.

``This was an active decision about picking Giuliani, and not a decision 
about not picking Bush,'' Kelly said.

``Giuliani managed to touch us emotionally in a way that nobody else did, 
including the president,'' he said.

As for bin Laden, the Saudi-born dissident accused by the United States of 
planning the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New 
York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Time said he ``is too small a man to get 
the credit for all that has happened in America in the autumn of 2001.''

``He's a moral pipsqueak,'' Kelly said.

He said after that viewing the videotape released last week showing bin 
Laden pleased that the Sept. 11 attacks succeeded beyond his expectations, 
bin Laden was not a figure with broad enough historical sweep to name as 
person of the year.

``We are dealing here with, yes, an evil man, but not a man who deserves to 
stride the world stage like a Stalin and a Hitler, or even a Khomeini,'' 
Kelly said. Soviet leader Josef Stalin was Time's Person of the Year in 1939 
and 1942, German dictator Adolph Hitler in 1938, and Iranian leader 
Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

Kelly said that Time, which along with other publications has seen declining 
advertising revenues, was not concerned about a backlash against the weekly 
news magazine if it had chosen bin Laden.

``If we had picked him, we would have argued the case well enough to show 
that we didn't try to make him a hero,'' Kelly said.

Instead, he said, they chose Giuliani ``because of his courage on Sept. 11 
and afterwards, because a very human man showed superhuman strengths at a 
time when the entire country was being tested.''

Already credited with making New York City livable again after years of 
crime and neglect, Giuliani has become an international symbol of courage 
and leadership since Sept. 11.

From the first moments after two hijacked planes slammed into the World 
Trade Center's twin towers, demolishing them, Giuliani has been ubiquitous: 
racing to the scene of the destruction and nearly getting buried when the 
towers collapsed; calmly giving news conference after news conference; 
leading a succession of world leaders to ``ground zero'' to help solidify 
the international coalition against bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization; 
and attending more than 200 funerals and wakes of those who died in the 
attacks.

``For being brave when required and rude when appropriate and tender without 
being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the 
pain all around him, Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of the World, is Time's Person of 
the Year,'' wrote Time reporter Nancy Gibbs in the issue that hits 
newsstands Monday.

Giuliani, who pulled out of the Senate race last year to battle prostate 
cancer, finishes his second four-year term as mayor on Dec. 31. He has said 
he plans to open a private consulting firm.

Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg will take office on Jan. 1. Many 
New Yorkers have said they are uncertain how New York, its economy wounded 
by the Sept. 11 attacks, will fare without Giuliani at the helm.