Putin is Time's Man - Apparently, Time uses their Person of the Year anointments to generate hype for their magazine. How else to explain Vladimir Putin, an accused murderer, as the magazine's Person of the Year?

Time lists Al Gore, J.K. Rowling, Hu Jintao and Gen. David Petraeus as runners-up.

J.K. Rowling?

Rowling is a fantastic writer. She might be this century's most important fiction writer. She is at least near the top for certain. But Harry Potter books shouldn't make someone Person of the Year. Why would Time consider Rowling? Person of the Year should go to a scientist that discovers an important cure to disease or a revolutionary surgical procedure. Person of the Year should go to a world leader that makes the world better.

Anyway, Al Gore would have made a better choice than Putin. He isn't an alleged murderer, and he seems a whole lot more honest than Putin. Critics and conspiracy theorists allege that Putin bore responsibility for Alexander Litvinenko's murder. As we all know, Litvinenko was murdered in London, poisoned with Polonium-210.

The reporter Time sent to cover their Person of the Year, Adi Ignatius, apparently felt so creeped out around Putin that he felt compelled to describe the way Putin stared at him as chilling.

That's nice. What is Putin doing staring down reporters? Could you imagine an American president with a chilling stare? Our presidents don't have chilling stares. People with chilling stares would never get elected here. It is quite obvious that Russia doesn't have the kind of democracy America and Great Britain can boast about. Guys with thuggish, chilling stares don't make it in our political echelons.

Time's selection of Putin as Person of the Year is a bad choice. I thought last year's selection was a bad idea. I can only assume that "You," as in everyone, would have to include the rest of society's accused murderers, and confirmed murderers for that matter. You was a little too conceptual for me. I had hoped for a standard selection, someone who actually did all good and no bad and avoided controversy.

It's not that Putin is a bad guy. He might be, but the accusations against him aren't substantiated. The problem is Putin's role in the world. Putin, by the nature of his position, cannot avoid controversy. As Russia's leader, he will always butt heads with the U.S. on one policy or another. He will rankle Great Britain. He will rankle China. Sometimes China deserves it, and regardless, Putin will factor into that political blender that includes the Chinese, North Korea, South Korea and Japan.

Putin will never be considered a great humanitarian, a Mother Teresa or Ghandi perhaps. He will never be an Abraham Lincoln or a Winston Churchill. But he will always be Time's Person of the Year for 2007. Perhaps Time readers will get a more appropriate selection next year.