Appearing on the cover of Time as person of the year is like a bell ringing. It almost always is akin to a figurative death sentence for the person involved, and sometimes even a literal one.
* Jeff Bezos made the cover in 1999 – the year the internet portion of the tech stock bubble topped out.
* GW Bush made the cover as his popularity rating had just begun to slide, ending at the worst such rating since Nixon, concurrent with a stock market crash.
* Hitler made the cover in 1938.
* General Chiang Kai Chek in 1937. It turned out to be an ill omen, career-wise.
* Stalin made the cover in 1939 and again in 1942.
* Kennedy made the cover the year before he was assassinated, as did Martin Luther King – a literal death sentence in both cases.
* Lyndon B. Johnson made the cover in 1964 – he was about to lead the country into the Vietnam catastrophe.
* Nixon and Kissinger made it in 1972.
* It was Yury Andropov’s turn in 1983 – he died shortly thereafter.
* Gorbachov became ‘man of the decade’ half a year before being forced to step down.
* Obama’s turn was last year.
* Most worrisome however, in 2006 Time decided to write on its person-of-the-year cover ‘You!’.
