Ahmadinejad: From the penthouse to the outhouse?

As a result of increasing media clutter, magazine "Man of the Year" awards have lost their relevance. Exhibit A is Dwayne Wade, option 1B on a one-year wonder championship basketball team, winning Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year last week. The only explanation for this involves some sort of nefarious corporate "synergy." Yet no one really cared.

They must still care about Time Magazine's Person of the Year in Iran, because they are clearly stuffing the ballot in the on-line polling. Why else would Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be so far ahead of the other nominees, including Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il.

OK, Ahmadinejad wrote a couple letters this year, but the just reelected Chavez is right there with Ahamdinejad on the crazy anti-Western rhetoric and Ahmadinejad isn't even in Jong Il's league when it comes to nuclear saber-rattling.

There have been grumblings over the last month or so that the conservative Mullahs who paved the way for Ahmadinejad's election in Iran are tiring of his publicity seeking antics. Things came to a head this weekend when Ahmadinejad was spotted in the stands of the opening ceremony for the Asian games.

The ceremony featured dancing women -- some without veils -- which is in violation of Iran's strict interpretation of Shia Islam. Now some of Iran's influential hardliners may have turned on Ahmadinejad for this.

While the result of the on-line poll isn't binding, could Ahmadinejad be the first man ever to win Person of the Year only to be removed from the office that propelled him to the award because he attended a pageant celebrating an international event that may have featured the odd, unveiled dancing girl?

I've reviewed the list of past winners and have concluded he would be. Although I admit I know nothing about the life and times of Owen Young.