It's Unanimous: Barack Is a Lock for 'Time' POY

Time hosted its annual discussion about who ought to be its person of the year this afternoon, and, as expected, it wasn't much of a contest. "I think we have but one choice," said NBC anchor and reliable panelist Brian Williams. That, of course, would be "the game-changer, the history-maker," Barack Obama.

No one really bothered to disagree, although Elizabeth Edwards (who, for the record, was wearing her wedding ring) did qualify the choice.

"It may be early to say it's the man and everything he stands for as opposed to him as a symbol," she said. "It's almost like I'd want a picture of him from behind with the people who were so inspired by him and energized by him."

Rep. Arthur Davis (D-Ala.) laid out the reasoning: "If you had asked the question in 2002, 'Can you conceive of an African-American being elected president of the United States of America in 2008, that would have struck every single person in this room as an absurd question," he said.

Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers offered his thoughts on Sarah Palin as a possible runner-up. "She's certainly the comedy writer's of the year," he said. "Her star-making turn was more sudden than even Barack Obama's. A lesson for anyone picking a running mate in the future would be not to pick someone who looks exactly like one of the most famous comedians in America" (that being, of course, Tina Fey).

The only serious alternative to Obama as person of the year was offered by personal finance guru Suze Orman, who made a case for why the economy will have more effect on the world in 2009 than the U.S. president. "Everything he does is going to have to be framed in terms of the economy. The environment is going to have to be talked about in terms of the economy. Health care is going to have to be talked about in terms of the economy."