President Barack Obama is Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2012.
"For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is TIME's 2012 Person of the Year," wrote managing editor Rick Stengel.
Obama overcame a painfully slow economic recovery and Republican business mogul Mitt Romney to win a second term.
The outcome of the presidential election hung in the balance through most of the year, but Obama cruised to an Electoral College landslide amid hopes the nation is heading in the right direction.
"After four of the most challenging years in the nation's history, his chance to leave office as a great president who was able to face crises and build a new majority coalition remains within reach," Time wrote.
Obama's presidency is the most transformational political development since the 1980's, smashing the realignment that was ushered in by Ronald Reagan more than thirty years ago.
Others considered for the distinction this year were U.S. tech CEOs Marissa Mayer of Yahoo and Tim Cook from Apple, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot for speaking against the Taliban.
Obama was Time's Person of the Year back in 2008, when he became the first minority to win the White House.
Former presidents Ronald Reagan, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Harry Truman have also been named twice. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have been cited three times.
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