Giuliani Is ‘Person of the Year’ for Leadership in the Face of Attacks

NEW YORK —  Capping a year in which he won international praise for his courage and was made an Honorary Knight by the Queen of England, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was named “Person of the Year” Sunday by Time magazine for his leadership after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The magazine, which has given out the title every year since 1927 to the person who has most affected the news, said Giuliani’s compassion and strength in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center were “extraordinary and compelling.” The mayor beat out other candidates, including Osama bin Laden and President Bush, according to Time managing editor Jim Kelly.

“Giuliani managed to touch us emotionally in a way that nobody else did, including the president,” Kelly said, explaining the magazine’s selection process. “He led by emotions, not just by words and actions. And in an emotional year like this one, he deserved to be person of the year.”

The mayor, sounding humble at a City Hall news conference, thanked the magazine--but said the award really honored the people of New York. “I believe that I wasn’t selected, but they were selected because of the brave and heroic way in which they responded from the first moment to the worst attack on the U.S. in our history,” Giuliani said. “This really honors them.”

When he first got the news early Sunday morning, the mayor said: “I was very stunned. I said: ‘Wow,’ and I thought it was strange--it’s hard to think of yourself that way. But then I thought in terms of the people of New York. If something really goes wrong in the city, you can blame the mayor. So I guess I got all the credit for resting on the shoulders of people who have had one of the most heroic three months any people have ever had.”

In its bestowing of the title, the magazine acknowledged the mayor’s often brusque and abrasive style but nonetheless praised the 57-year-old Giuliani “for being brave when required and rude when appropriate and tender without being trite.” Tireless and determined to rally the city’s spirits, the magazine said, he has attended more than 200 funerals of people who were lost in the attacks.

Kelly said he made the final decision himself after consulting with colleagues and considering the opinions of readers--thousands of whom wrote in with their own nominees. He said he knew within hours after the Sept. 11 attacks that the magazine’s choice for Person of the Year would be someone directly connected with those events. The choice of the mayor, he said, was easy to make, given Giuliani’s handling of the situation.

The mayor’s actions within minutes of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center were “truly remarkable,” said Kelly, who reviewed numerous television videotapes of the attacks and the aftermath. After racing to the site and almost losing his life in a collapsing building, the editor said, Giuliani “was with us hour by hour, giving people courage not just in New York but around the country. He rose to the challenge with flying colors.”

The title further boosts Giuliani’s image, which had been badly tarnished in the months before Sept. 11. A mayor who was embroiled in a messy divorce from his estranged wife, Giuliani was galvanized in the final months of his second term by the terror attacks. He has won praise, even from longtime critics, and will leave office Jan. 1 on a high note.

Asked in a CNN interview if the magazine had dodged a readers’ backlash by passing over Bin Laden, Kelly said the terrorist was either dead or on the run, and was not a charismatic figure like Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler, who were named Man of the Year in 1941 and 1938, respectively.

Bin Laden “is a moral pipsqueak, he is not a man of towering strength,” Kelly said. He called Bin Laden someone “who is clearly on the losing end of things now.”