Friday, Jan. 4 2008
The Final Score
Kasparov: The Real ‘Man of the Year’
David Asman (mailto:[email protected])
FOXBusiness
NE W YORK — When Time Magazine chose Russia’s Vladimir Putin as its Man of
the Year, a lot of folks were outraged.
Time answered back that their pick wasn’t an endorsement of Putin. After all,
they chose Adolf Hitler as Man of the Year in 1938, even though they were
appalled by what he was doing. But Hitler used Time’s designation as an
endorsement, propagandizing that it elevated his status as a statesman.
And according to Garry Kasparov, Putin’s doing the same thing. The Kremlin’s
ad men are using the Time cover at home to portray Putin as a class act.
That got us thinking. Why didn’t Time put Garry Kasparov on the cover as Man
of the Year?
Kasparov’s battle with Putin is the kind of David and Goliath storythat Time
used to love. Kasparov is a former world chess champion who could easily sit
back with his millions, living the lush life in Paris or New York. Instead,
he puts his freedom and his life on the line, fighting against a former KGB
bully, who uses the full force of a powerful state to crush all competition.
Now we admit we’re biased, because we know and like Kasparov. And we also
recognize that one guy trying to reform a state like Russia is the long shot of
all time.
But because Scoreboard loves long shots and genuine class acts, we pick Garry
Kasparov over Vladimir Putin as our Man of the Year.