Time magazine picked Vladimir Putin.  Weekly Standard went with David Petraeus.

They’re both wrong.  The Man of the Year, the winner of 2007 Extreme Man of the Year honors, is Tony Snow.

He’s the smartest hire the Bush administration made.  He was the most articulate voice on Iraq policy — and most other policies.   He had the most compelling non-military personal story of anyone in the administration.  And he’s someone who pulled off the unthinkable: he went out on top, with both his conservative credentials intact and with the love and adoration of the media.  Never again in our lifetime.

There’s also quantitative reasons to make Tony Snow Extreme Man of the Year.  An examination of our top ten most-read blog postings in 2007 puts Tony in the number two and number ten spots.  Clearly there was an appetite for Tony Snow.

Here’s the full listing of the most-read Extreme Mortman blog postings from 2007:
1) Oddly, our biggest hits in 2007 were about 2006 — the top ten funniest political quotes of 2006 and the top ten funniest things celebrities said about politics in 2007. So let’s go ahead and plug again this year’s lists: top ten funniest quotes by politicians in 2007 and top ten funniest media quotes of 2007.

And the rest of the list:

2) The best of Tony Snow versus Helen Thomas exchanges at the White House.

3) Don Rumsfeld chatting up Doug Feith! “Not just chatting, laughing. Laughing really, really hard. The kind of laughter that’s so hard it could cause a mistrial if the Scooter Libby jury ever heard it.”

4) After the Virginia Tech tragedy, a member of the White House press corps asks: “Does there need to be some more restrictions? Does there need to be gun control in this country?”

5) CNN’s “Fairness Doctrine”: the New Hampshire Democratic debate

6) “First, the Democrats turned against President Bush on Iraq. Then, Republicans. Now, who’s next? Could it be — yes, it is … it’s the White House press corps that doesn’t care for Bush’s Iraq policy. At least Bush’s Iraq policy on the White House press corps.”

7) “You know you’re in really sorry shape as a presidential debate moderator when another member of the press — a far more famous and powerful member — demands your resignation. That’s where we stand today with Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn — and the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank.”

8) Remembering when we were all worked up about global cooling — the April 1975 Newsweek cover story.

9) “It’s Mourning in America“: Maria Bartiromo leaves us all depressed following the Republican presidential candidate economics debate.

10) Tony Snow: “As some people in this room are suddenly finding out, the alternative minimum tax is a way of declaring working people rich and raising their taxes. I know a number of you have suggested in recent days that you’re starting to feel the bite of the AMT.”