Obvious you say! Well yes, but the overwhelming majority of our 1435 voters wanted the president elect as their person of the year for good reason. We shouldn’t let the fact that Barack Obama was far and away the standout candidate stand in the way of his achievement. And let’s not forget that when the long race to the White House began, so many months ago, Obama was a hopeful outsider, a man who blind-sided the political establishment with his strong showing in the Iowa Caucus and rode that momentum all the way to a ringing electoral victory. His achievement is an astounding and inspirational one, a life’s story that puts flesh to his claims of hope and change. This is how you voted: 

And these were some of the reasons you gave:

  • Suave, elegant and sexy as hell
  • Because he has made it possible for me to stop pretending I’m Canadian
  • For managing to become US President even though his initials are “BO”.
  • For pulling off the unthinkable
  • The rank outsider who empowered a nation and world by getting Democratic endorsement and winning the Presidential race, he is starting at a high watermark with prodigious expectations and challenges. It will be fascinating to see how he goes in his first year as president
  • For making it all good again (for the moment at least)
  • For proving that even if the US political system is 95% corrupt, the good guy can actually win
  • Because he might make a difference.

View the full Crikey Readers’ Choice Awards results here.