Lileks says that Time Magazine is too easily impressed:

...gosh, convincing the Russian general population to accept illiberal strong-man autocracy; that's hard work. What do you do with your afternoon?

I don't know if Petraeus should have been the pick, but he should have been ranked above Vlad. I was kind of disappointed that they didn't pick me again. Not that it did much for my hits this year.

Of course Time would pick an ex-KGB guy who's also an ex-Communist over anyone else. It fits in perfectly withy the feelings and opinions of their editorial board.

Time picked Gorbachev as their Man of the Year shortly before his downfall. Let's hope their track record remains true to form.