Barack Obama Is Time's 2012 Person Of The Year

Step aside, “the protester” and “you”: newly re-elected President Barack Obama is once again Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Obama also won the accolade in 2008, when he was an charismatic young politician electrifying crowds with his unlikely presidential run. The grey hairs characteristic of the country’s most stressful job have proliferated since then, but Time still endorsed Obama’s capacity as a leader who can transcend the country’s divisions.

"For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is TIME's 2012 Person of the Year," editor Richard Stengel wrote.

The president emerged from a shortlist of other luminaries that included Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist who made global headlines when her call for girls’ education caused the Taliban to gun her down, severely wounding her; Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader; Bill and Hillary Clinton; Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s first female CEO; Tim Cook, who has filled Steve Jobs’ sizable shoes as CEO of Apple; and the Higgs Boson, an elusive particle whose existence scientists finally confirmed.