How did President Obama, Senator Ted Cruz, Miley Cyrus and Edward Snowden all appear in the same sentence? They are among the top 10 finalists for TIME’s Person of the Year, which was announced on Monday’s Today Show.
After selecting its first “Man of the Year” in 1927, this title has gone to the person who has had “the most impact on this year, for better or worse,” Nancy Gibbs, TIME’s Managing Editor said on Monday’s Today. Gibbs continued to explain that the person who is ultimately voted by TIME’s editors to win the award has to be alive and “has to be someone whose impact has been on the news that we have lived through this year.”
This year’s finalists included a wide range of candidates from prominent political figures to Miley Cyrus, who some may see as a shock to be on the list. “Power is not just political, it can be cultural, it can spiritual,” Gibbs said. “At a time when you’re living with an explosion of exhibitionism since we all now carry cameras with us at all times, [Cyrus] is a symbol of the way we live.”
Obama won the elite title in 2008 and last year due in part to how he “used technology to win a second term and now he finds himself having technology trip him up, and it seems to surprise even him,” Gibbs said.
The top 10 finalists, in no particular order, are: Bashar al-Assad, Senator Ted Cruz, Hassan Rouhani, Kathleen Sebelius, Jeff Bezos, Edith Windsor, Miley Cyrus, Edward Snowden, President Obama, and Pope Francis.
Abby Borovitz