Some Past Honorees Give Their Picks for This Year

RUDY GIULIANI 2001 Former Mayor of New York City and chairman of Giuliani Partners

I'd select Mother Nature. As we have seen this year, in a flash Mother Nature can claim lives, disrupt families, even change the geography of the world. Hurricanes, tornadoes, landslides, earthquakes and wildfires have reawakened our respect for forces greater than ourselves.

TED TURNER 1991 CNN's founder and chairman of the United Nations Foundation

Bono should be named TIME'S Person of the Year. No single individual has done more to raise global awareness about the urgency and need to create a more peaceful and equitable world. And there is nothing on the planet that is more important than that.

COLEEN ROWLEY 2002 Former FBI agent (one of three "whistleblowers" TIME honored in 2002)

I think the "Person" of the Year should be God. On the one hand, more people seem certain they know God's will on the social issues of the day. On the other, all of us feel the need to find answers as we confront the "acts of God" dominating the news, like diseases and global catastrophes.

PETER UEBERROTH 1984 Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Olympic Committee

I would nominate Tony Blair, who won a historic third term as British Prime Minister this year. His personal lobbying also played a big part in London's winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Even if you are opposed to him on some issues, you cannot but admire his boldness and likability.