Obama is Time Person of Year

‘Time’ magazine named US President-elect Barack Obama the Person of the Year in 2008 after he became the first African-American to win the White House, but the real contest may have been for the runners up.

The other finalists were US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou, ‘Time’ said on Wednesday.

“In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States,” the magazine said.