President Bush named Person of the Year!

POSTED BY: CrevanReaver
UPDATED: Thursday, February 27, 2025 14:06
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CREVANREAVER

Sunday, December 19, 2004 9:23 PM

TIME Magazine has named President George W. Bush its "Person of the Year". Personally I really would have liked Mel Gibson, but this makes sense. You really can't argue with this decision, because whether you like the president or not, agree with him or not, this certainly was his year.

Here is the Press Release...

Quote:

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New York� President George W. Bush has been named TIME magazine's 2004 Person of the Year.

"For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, we name George W. Bush as TIME's Person of the Year for 2004," writes managing editor Jim Kelly in a letter to readers.

Bush has "had his highs and lows, with approval ratings at one point hitting 90% and then sinking to 46% as the war in Iraq kept claiming American lives. Even some of his strongest supporters never considered him the odds-on favorite to win a second term. But in the end, George W. Bush prevailed," Kelly writes.

TIME's double issue on newsstands for two weeks beginning Monday, Dec. 20th.

Oval Office Interview: In an interview with TIME's Matt Cooper, John Dickerson and Nancy Gibbs in the oval office, Bush says he thinks "More highly" of all his White House predecessors. He says, "I've got a much better appreciation of what they've been through, some more than others. My appreciation for Lincoln has grown immeasurably. He is a President who was a visionary for the good of the country. I've got his painting right there. And he's there because he had this great vision about a United States of America in incredibly difficult times."

Bush tells TIME, "Baseball now must get its act cleaned up (in regards to steroids). And they've heard a warning signal from Senator John McCain that said, "Clean it up in a meaningful way, or we will." My hope is that they do. But I will sign legislation if McCain can get it to my desk." The full interview transcript is available on TIME.com.

Interview with Former President and First Lady: "Michael Moore's got to be the worst for me," former President George H.W. Bush tells TIME's Hugh Sidey when asked about the low point of this last term. "I mean, he's such a slimeball and so atrocious. But I love the fact now that the Democrats are not embracing him as theirs anymore. He might not get invited to sit in Jimmy Carter's box (at the Democratic Convention) again. I wanted to get up my nerve to ask Jimmy Carter at the Clinton thing (the opening of Bill Clinton's library), 'How did it feel being there with that marvelous friend of yours, Michael Moore?' and I didn't dare do it." See separate press release.

The Bush Dynasty: TIME's Matt Cooper examines how the Bush family has endured and who's next in line.

The Strategist: Karl Rove: TIME profiles Bush adviser Karl Rove who talks about his relationship with his boss and discusses his own mother's suicide in 1981. He tells TIME's Karen Tumulty, "It's hard to figure out. You can speculate on what demons she just wasn't able to overcome, but she couldn't. And it's very sad for my sisters, who were very close to her. Rove recalls that Bush "was a certain way in 1988, and he was significantly different by 1990, 1992, 1994. I think it's his own life experience, waking up and saying 'I'm not going to drink because it saps my energy and drains my focus.' I think it's the freedom of being, ironically, his own self in the aftermath of his father's defeat in '92. I don't know. You could psychoanalyze it. Clearly, he's always had incredible abilities, (but) he had a stronger focus and a discipline. He brought all of his many talents to bear after he went through�I suspect like all of us do�something that changed his center of life," Rove tells TIME. See separate press release.

TIME Poll: In the first TIME Poll since November's election, just under half of Americans (49%) approve of President George W. Bush's performance, abou

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