Edward Snowden was for a while considered Time magazine's most likely candidate for "Person of the Year". In the end, however, the magazine's editors yielded the man-of-the-year slot to the Pope Francis, the third pontiff so named. It was a safe, if not a slyly calculated, choice because any pope has millions of cheering followers and a pro-active one, such as the current pope, will have many millions more.

Snowden, for the uninitiated, is a former National Security Agency operative who exposed the United States' global surveillance program.

It is said Snowden came in second, another sly bit of PR finesse, because it speaks to popular sentiment of the moment, implying the rogue patriot actually stood a chance at snagging the top spot, while easing fears in the Beltway, where the NSA's nervous ninnies can console themselves with the hope that runners-up for such accolades are soon forgotten. Who was the runner up last year?