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We had a nice run, but it’s time to pass along the tiera. Our era as Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” is coming to an end.

Today the magazine is holding a panel to discuss who’s going to be the big newsmaker this year, and it’s going to be a tough call. After all, who stood out in 2007?

There’s a little more to the equation than you’d think, remember. It’s not an award. It’s not even a compliment. The magazine says the distinction goes to “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill.” Heck, Person of the Year doesn’t even have to be a person – Earth won once, and so did The Computer.

Time is holding an online poll right now, listing off ten possibilities. (Look! There go all the Ron Paul readers!) Some of the ones they’re tossing out? Al Gore, Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice, J. K Rowling, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, General David Petraeus.

All notable public figures, to be sure. But none of them has a chance. The Time magazine is a complicated calculus of risk and PR, with a dash of quirk tossed in. It’s definitely a good annual publicity ploy by the magazine, but it always has a financial angle as well. Over the past 25 years, the magazine's decision has devolved into choosing a safe, newsworthy and palatable cover person or people.

So who might get it? It’s easier to say who won’t. And why.

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"There are many reasons [why political leaders have not yet taken action on global warming], but one of the principal reasons in my view is more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly — and I say 'rejected,' perhaps it's the wrong word. They have failed to report that it is the consensus and instead have chosen … balance as bias."

--Al Gore, speaking to a group of national media ethicists.

Al Gore is no stranger to the ups and downs of a presidential campaign. And now he's going through it all once again – even though he's (presumably) not running for office.

Gore is having quite a week – an Oscar win for his film, fawning praise from Hollywood stars, fantastic press. The Washington Post claimed on its front page that Gore may be "America's Coolest Ex-Vice President Ever," while Andrea Mitchell and Meredith Vieira also called the rather stiff ex-veep "cool" on "Today." Political observers are now speculating that Gore may harness his momentum for an '08 bid. "Former Vice President Al Gore's triumph at the Oscars is already stoking activists' pleas for him to make a dramatic late entry into the fractious presidential race," noted Mike Allen.

The "Evening News" got into the act last night too. "Now that Al Gore's documentary on global warming won an Oscar, a lot of people are wondering if he'll use it as a springboard for another presidential run," said Katie Couric. Gloria Borger discussed how "he's not just another defeated presidential candidate. He's an Oscar-winning environmental evangelist." Over on ABC, meanwhile, Charles Gibson trumpeted "Gore's Moment" "following his star turn at the Academy Awards."

All that buzz presumably has Republicans worried. Enter The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, "an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to providing concerned citizens, the media and public leaders with expert empirical research and timely free market policy solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee." The group put out a release noting that Gore's home "consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year."

Matt Drudge gave the story huge play, and conservative blogs gleefully dismissed Gore as a hypocrite.

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