2012 Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the President
Source: Talkingpointsmemo/Time
In mid-December, as Obama settles into one of the Oval Office’s reupholstered chairs — brown leather instead of Bush’s blue and gold candy stripes — the validation of Election Day still hovers around him, suggesting that his second four years in office may turn out to be quite different from his first. Beyond the Oval Office, overwhelming challenges remain: deadlocked fiscal-cliff talks; a Federal Reserve that predicts years of high unemployment; and more unrest in places like Athens, Cairo and Damascus. But the President seems unbound and gives inklings of an ambition he has kept in check ever since he arrived at the White House to find a nation in crisis. He leans back, tea at his side, legs crossed, to explain what he thinks just happened. “It was easy to think that maybe 2008 was the anomaly,” he says. “And I think 2012 was an indication that, no, this is not an anomaly. We’ve gone through a very difficult time. The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this President we elected is imperfect. And yet despite all that, this is who we want to be.” He smiles. “That’s a good thing.”
Two years ago, Republicans liked to say that the only hard thing Obama ever did right was beating Hillary Clinton in the primary, and in electoral terms, there was some truth to that. In 2012 the GOP hoped to cast him as an inspiring guy who was not up to the job. But now we know the difference between the wish and the thing, the hype and the man in the office. He stands somewhat shorter, having won 4 million fewer votes and two fewer states than in 2008. But his 5 million-vote margin of victory out of 129 million ballots cast shocked experts in both parties, and it probably would have been higher had so much of New York and New Jersey not stayed home after Hurricane Sandy. He won many of the toughest battlegrounds walking away: Virginia by 4 points, Colorado by 5 and the lily white states of Iowa and New Hampshire by 6. He untied Ohio’s knotty heartland politics, picked the Republican lock on Florida Cubans and won Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. (Those last two data points especially caught the President’s interest.) He will take the oath on Jan. 20 as the first Democrat in more than 75 years to get a majority of the popular vote twice. Only five other Presidents have done that in all of U.S. history.
There are many reasons for this, but the biggest by far are the nation’s changing demographics and Obama’s unique ability to capitalize on them. When his name is on the ballot, the next America — a younger, more diverse America — turns out at the polls. In 2008, blacks voted at the same rate as whites for the first time in history, and Latinos broke turnout records. The early numbers suggest that both groups did it again in 2012, even in nonbattleground states, where the Obama forces were far less organized. When minorities vote, that means young people do too, because the next America is far more diverse than the last. And when all that happens, Obama wins. He got 71% of Latinos, 93% of blacks, 73% of Asians and 60% of those under 30.
That last number is the one Obama revels in most. When he talks about the campaign, he likes to think about the generational shift the country is going through on topics like gay marriage — an issue on which he lagged, only to reverse himself last spring. He connects it to the optimism he felt as a young man, the same thing he always talks about with staff in the limo or on the plane after visits with campaign volunteers. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” reads one of the quotes stitched into his new Oval Office rug — an old abolitionist cry that Martin Luther King Jr. repurposed while marching on Selma, Ala. Obama believes in that, and he believes he is more than just a bit player in the transition. “I do think that my eight years as President, reflecting those values and giving voice to those values, help to validate or solidify that transformation,” he says, “and I think that’s a good thing for the country.”
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/time-names-obama-2012-person-of-year?ref=fpb
Read more: http://poy.time.com/2012/12/19/person-of-the-year-barack-obama/
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Am I alone here, but since citizens are represented by at least 2 congressmen per state-counting the senate representatives you will arrive at a larger sum-why aren't these congressional representatvives being asked to stand up? Why aren't people calling on their congressmen to STAND UP for them?
The President has always been the one to STAND UP-without any backing from Congress.
So what's up with that? Why is it that you keep electing Congressmen who do nothing for you?
And why is it that no Congressman has initiated any law regarding gun safety-EVER- since all laws are initiated via Congress?
I could not agree with you more!
Welcome to DU. 
Hi sheshe2, thanks for the warm hospitality-and greeting!
Last edited Thu Dec 20, 2012, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)
Good morning, I know that your statements are not criticism, and I did not take them as such. I am only asking others to "ask" their representatives in Congress the same they "ask" of the President. He is only one man and can not do ANYTHING by himself, except Executive Orders, which he WOULD not be forced to do if the Congress supported him and backed him on bills that he wants.
I have read the "stuff that you write" and I do know that you are one of the President's most ardent and vocal supporters here on DU. And when I, myself, write "stuff", I am only supporting the President as well.
I support the President- sometimes it appears vehemently- because as another DU member said previously, it seems that we have some people on DU that will criticize the President no matter what he does; I only want the blame placed where it squarely belongs. And that place, more times than not, is with the Congress-not with the President- who I think has done a lot as a President given the obstacles and unfair treatment he has faced since day one of taking office.
In another vein, some of these DU commenter's probably did not even vote for the President, or anyone else for that matter, and are only using DU as a platform to verbalize what they REALLY think of the President, and use us as a "captive audience". There is really no hope for these kind of people, and unfortunately they will never change because this is their role in life; to disrupt the harmony of the world order and be miserable. And as they say "misery loves company", so take it for what it is worth. I am directing my comments at the OTHERS!
I again hope that we, us, or whatever pronoun you wish to use, will not use the President as a scapegoat for all of their desires and missed opportunies they have experienced. But, instead, put the blame where it really belongs, starting with their (DO NOTHING) Congress.
And if they did not vote, or voted for the "other person" they can also look in the mirror when they wish to play the "blame game".
What gives here? What do you mean "it's time to act like it"? The President has acted presidential the entire time . It is the Congress and their obstructionist behavior and demeanor that are "not acting like congressmen" or even ADULTS!
But the Congress are apparently ok for not doing anything for the people-at any time. The people are apparently happy with this; they keep getting voting these republican (and some dem) turds back into office!
Let me ask you: where have you been for the last 4-1/2 years?
heads explode.
It amazes me too-no matter what the President does, it is never good enough. I reminds me of a statement made in 2009 by Hillary Clinton when she stated that if President Obama proved that he could walk on water, certain people would say that he couldn't SWIM!
It is thoroughly disgusting to the max.
"endangered Earth."
I think President Obama is doing a good job, and is a worthy Man of the Year. But Hurricane Sandy demonstrated exactly what we are up against. Humanity is in serious jeopardy if we don't do anything about climate change--maybe even if we do.
The challenge is daunting and we haven't really begun to address it in a meaningful way. Maybe next year Time will do their part to help bring the issue to the forefront.
In the meantime, it didn't even get raised in this year's debates. So sad....and so dangerous.
Make that THREE standing for the President
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I love PBO!
That caption is just too cute for words! And they seem to be having a nice conversation too
It should have been Malala. That brave little girl almost gave her life in her belief that all girls should be educated. Obama? Oh yeah, he won his reelection. So did Bush, for that matter.
He deserved it. I'm sorry you don't agree - but the fact you don't makes it all the more sweeter that he won it! 
Last edited Fri Dec 21, 2012, 02:13 PM - Edit history (1)
I wanted to comment on this article earlier but I got busy commenting on some other responses but I am responding now because I see that I am not alone in my view that you are very biased against our President of the United States. You seem to imply that our President should NOT receive any POSITIVE commendation what so ever. You seem to find blame in any favorable result that accompanies the President.
First, you don't agree with the Norwegian committee that bestowed the Nobel Prize upon the President in 2009. Just because you don't think the committee's criteria is something that you would have proposed, does not make you CORRECT. Needless to say, YOU would have probably won the Prize yourself had you been on the committee, correct? Or just who exactly would you have selected to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009? Or haven't you thought that far, and as the old saying goes: Anybody but him!
How can you be a Democrat and not follow and encourage the duly elected leader of the Democratic Party, the President of the United States? How can you be so hateful, or is it just racism on your part that can not be explained in any other way?
Or are one of those people that I described earlier that just want to use this DU venue as your sounding board, you are not truly a Democrat but is just a miserable person who want to piss and moan about everything Democratic. You are hoping and wishing that someone will join you in your misery since "Misery indeed does love company"!
Just what is it with you?
Let me wish you a very happy and celebratory Happy Birthday. May you have many, many more!
the young woman who took a bullet to the head so young Afghan women and girls could get an education.
If I were Obama, I'd be 
ETA: Oh, and the US military and others have been bombarding this country for over 11 years now. No one really has any exact estimate of the number of children, women and elderly that have been killed, maimed and their lives just basically ruined.
So, yeah, I'd vote for Malala. She really has endured and assisted those in need.
I wish we'd stop killing them....the collateral damage. Wouldn't it be better to give all the women wearing burquas big guns that they could carry under all that material? And when they came upon a mean Taliban dude who whips them for showing an ankle, she could shoot him in the foot? Just asking. 
It may have saved the workers in Pakistan who were vaccinating against polio.
