Time magazine's Person of the Year is President Barack Obama.
Obama was picked for the title by besting a Pakistani teen activist blogger who survived an assassination attempt (Malala Yousafzai), the head of the world's most valuable company (Apple CEO Tim Cook), another country's president (Egypt's Mohammed Morsi) and the potent combination of a past U.S. president and possible future one (the Clintons).
Time's managing editor Rick Stengel announced the editors' selection on the "Today" show Wednesday and explained what earned Obama the nod.
The president was the first Democrat to win reelection with more than 50 percent of the popular vote since Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he won it despite still-high unemployment, Stengel noted.
"He's creating a new alignment, kind of a realignment like Ronald Reagan did 40 years ago," by engaging young voters and minorities and courting them into a coalition, Stengel said.
"I think we will start to see him talking from the heart about things he really cares about," he added.
As it has for the past 85 years, the editors at the weekly news magazine selected the person or group that had the greatest impact during the year, for better or worse. Last year's pick was the protestor.
Obama was named Person of the Year in 2008, too.