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Time magazine names Barack Obama 'Person of the Year'

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Barak Obama

He hasn't even been officially inaugurated as the US President, but already Barack Obama is receiving awards after Time magazine named their President-Elect 'Person of the Year' for 2008.

The weekly current affairs title, known across the globe, bestowed their gong on the soon-to-be-President 'for having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour, and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off'.

Obama was in impressive company, with runners up in the category including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, China's Zhang Yimou, who directed the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies in Beijing, and rather surprisingly, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

And just to make sure the future President is still on his toes since being elected, on awarding Obama the title, Time asked the question of what the change he has promised to America will actually amount to.

His response? 'It means a government that is not ideologically driven. It means a government that is competent. It means a government, most importantly, that is focused day in, day out on the needs and struggles, the hopes and dreams of ordinary people'.