Bush as Person of the Year puzzles me, and not just because I dislike the guy. I'm not going to deny that Bush has done a lot of "Person of the Year" type things: revolutionizing foreign policy, invading Iraq, expanding Medicare, ballooning deficits, etc. Good or bad, he's a force.

But none of that happened this year. His 2004 accomplishments include: denying reality in Iraq, failing to get any bills passed, failing to get a budget passed on time, signing an intelligence bill he mostly opposed, and nearly scuttling the efforts of his excellent re-election team with a whiney debate performance. By any substantive measure, 2004 was a lost year for Bush.

By the way, I would've picked either 'Ali al-Sistani (most powerful person in world's #1 hotspot, overpowered Washington, possibly the new face of democratic Islam) or Abdul Qadeer Khan (singlehandedly reshaped geostrategic landscape, underscored power of non-state actors).