Forget the noisemakers: here’s a conversation starter to spark your New Year’s celebration.

Who is the one individual who has made the biggest difference in the world in the last year?

That’s the main criterion that Time magazine uses when selecting its “Person” every year.  To quote, Time editors choose:

the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that “for better or for worse, …has done the most to influence the events of the year.”

The answer is pretty obvious.  It is President George W. Bush.  He is not just Man of the Year.  He is Man of the Decade.  Whether it was the contested election of 2000, the response to 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the “mess in Iraq,” and the surge, the guy in the middle was President Bush.  Whether it’s the success of the 2003 tax cuts, the mess of No Child Left Behind, or the gigantic expansion of Medicare, the go-to guy is President Bush.

But of course, our objective journalist friends in the mainstream media would die rather than give President Bush the time of day.  They figure that by making him “Person of the Year” in 2000 and 2004 they have eaten their broccoli.  As composer Richard Strauss said:

“Never look at the trombones. You’ll only encourage them.”

We certainly wouldn’t want to encourage President Bush, now, would we?  He might decide to go off and invade Iran.

Many conservatives would like to nominate General David H. Petraeus as Man of the Year, as a reward for commanding a successful “surge” that even the prophetic Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) failed to see in the stars.  There is no doubt that General Petraeus’ head should be crowned with laurels.

We should remember that it is presidents that appoint generals, and that normally it takes a couple of years of war to find the right general.  As often as not, he’s commanding a division at the beginning of the war.  Think Montgomery, Rommel, Manstein. 

Some war winners start even further back in the officer corps.  Ulysses S. Grant began the Civil War recruiting a company of volunteers.  Eisenhower was a one-star general at the start of World War II.  General Petraeus went into Iraq in 2003 as the commander of the 101st Airborne Division.

It was Lincoln who picked Grant, Roosevelt who picked Eisenhower, and Bush who picked Petraeus.  Let’s give credit where credit is due to the president that hired the general.