Last night, Time magazine presented a panel discussion on the candidates for its upcoming Person of the Year issue, due on newsstands December 15th. This year’s panel, moderated by the magazine’s managing editor, Richard Stengel [pictured above, far left], included Daisy Khan, the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and wife of Person of the Year candidate Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf; Democratic campaign worker and political consultant Joe Trippi; Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of geographic and local services; musician, producer and one-time hopeful for Haiti’s presidency Wyclef Jean (Jean said he was “bamboozled” out of running); and blogger and author Meghan McCain.

Among the topics discussed by the panelists were their top picks for the annual honor. McCain selected members of the Tea Party and was interested in seeing how those running on an “anti-Washington platform” would eventually fare in Washington, as well as Glenn Beck. Jean picked the people of Haiti for their resilience in the face of recent earthquakes and an outbreak of cholera, as well as for their ability to show how technology can help bring different parts of the globe together for a common cause. Khan lamented that she couldn’t pick Time itself for its recent thought-provoking cover story on Islamophobia in the United States. Her picks, in order, were Mayor Michael Bloomberg, her husband, and Jon Stewart, who nominated as a candidate alongside Stephen Colbert. Trippi, in keeping with his background in politics, selected Nancy Pelosi as his number one pick, followed by the Tea Party members. Mayer, drawing on her own interest in tech, selected either Steve Jobs of the smartphone for their continued impact. She also recounted how Time‘s 1982 Person of the Year pick (then dubbed “Man of the Year”), the personal computer, marked her very first encounter with that type of technology.

The discussion took an interesting turn when candidates were asked to defend one another’s choices (most were not exactly game), and then asked to select their “Bad Guy of the Year.” Khan selected Beck for his stance on immigration and religion, opining that his views went against “the American ethos.” Trippi colorfully referred to the iPod and iPad as “slingshots for Goliath, and McCain felt that Australian Julian Assange‘s decision to reveal military information through his WikiLeaks site was “un-American” and likened him to a Bond villain.

(L to R): Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, The Paley Center for Media; Debora Spar, President, Barnard College; Tina Brown, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Beast; Lauren Zalaznick, President, NBCU Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks; Mark Addicks, Chief Marketing Officer, General Mills; Kim Brink, Executive Director, Advertising and Sales Promotion, Cadillac; Donna Speciale, President of Investment and Activation, MediaVest USA.

The Daily Beast‘s Tina Brown, NBC’s Lauren Zalaznick and Jeff Zucker, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gathered among other powerful women (and men) in media and marketing this morning for Women@NBCU’s annual Power of the Purse Breakfast. This year’s event was held at New York’s Cipriani’s as part of Advertising Week and focused on “Women in Power: Marketing to the Educated Consumer.”

To reach female consumers, Brown said it was important to remember the way women think. “Men want to know what happened. Women want to know what really happened,” she said. “Women have the incredible bullshit detector about everything.”

After the session wrapped, we spoke with the media veteran about her work at The Daily Beast, which she praised for pulling in a healthy five million unique visitors a month. Brown also said she’s looking forward to several upcoming Beast events, including a conference on reviving the economy in New Orleans featuring D.C. public school chancellor Michelle Rhee, and their Women of the World event in March featuring Diane Von Furstenberg and Meryl Streep.

But Brown was still mum on where those Newsweek-Daily Beast merger rumors originated. “I’ve already said everything I have to say about that,” she said.

Follow the jump to watch video from this morning’s panel and for more photos from the event.

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Time magazine’s managing editor Richard Stengel was on the “Today” show this morning to (finally) announce the magazine’s Person of the Year: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Person of the Year issue, due on newsstands on Friday, features the first full, on-the-record print interview with Bernanke since he was named chairman of the Fed. Said Stengel of the cover and cover story: “It’s a throwback cover. It’s like a Person of the Year cover from the 1940′s or 50′s. It’s a great, great story by our senior correspondent Michael Grunwald. And it’s basically about who is influencing how the economy operates.”

Adds Grunwald in the magazine:

“The main reason Ben Shalom Bernanke is Time‘s Person of the Year for 2009 is that he is the most important player guiding the world’s most important economy. His creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression, and he still wields unrivaled power over our money, our jobs, our savings and our national future.”

The Person of the Year package also includes interviews with the Person of the Year runners-up: Nancy Pelosi, General Stanley McChrystal, Usain Bolt and “the Chinese worker,” — represented by five factory workers in China.

Read more: Person of the Year 2009 –Time

Previously: Gearing Up For Time‘s Person Of The Year Announcement

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We’ve been waiting — patiently! — for the announcement of Time magazine’s Person of the Year since attending a debate on the matter hosted by the magazine last month.

Then, on Friday, we learned that Time managing editor Richard Stengel would be making the big announcement live on Wednesday on the “Today” show. Today and tomorrow, the morning show will be doing features on the Person of the Year lists to get us even more excited for the big reveal. Hopefully we won’t be sick of Stengel and this whole waiting game by then. (Stengel was on today and will be back Wednesday, but he won’t be there tomorrow, we’re told.)

Today, Stengel narrowed a previously released top ten list of contenders to a “shortlist” of seven. Looks like Time‘s person is going to be one of these: Steve Jobs, Ben Bernanke, Nancy Pelosi, General Stanley McChrystal, Usain Bolt, Barack Obama or “the Chinese worker.”

And although the top person has already been chose by Time‘s top brass, you can still cast your vote for your choice.

We’re still disappointed to see the Twitter guys missing from this shortlist. What do you think?

Previously: Will Twitter Be Time‘s Person Of The Year?

Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravesnthal, Barbara Walters and Tom Colicchio. Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Time Inc.

Last night, Time magazine managing editor Richard Stengel hosted a distinguished panel of guests to debate the question that always surfaces around this time of year: who should be Time‘s Person of the Year?

Stengel co-moderated the good-natured debate with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — Time‘s Person of the Year in 2001. Panelists like Barbara Walters were encouraged to bring lists of possible Person of the Year candidates who met the title’s criteria, which includes having a global impact in the past year, for better or worse.

After running through lists of possible Person of the Year winners that included Bernie Madoff, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger and the Iranian protesters, the six-person panel ended the night in a three-three split. Walters agreed with TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and Gayle King that “the guys from Twitter,” meaning Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, should take the prize. Giuliani, “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio and Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravensthal all voted for “the economy,” settling on some amalgam of Ben Bernanke and the unemployed American worker as Person of the Year.

Stengel didn’t give any hints about who would end up the final winner later this year, but we’ll see in a few weeks when the Person of the Year issue hits newsstands.

Read on for more of the panel’s suggestions.

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Yesterday, a sharp-eyed blogger accused New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd of reprinting a sentence pulled from Josh Marshall‘s Talking Points Memo blog in her Sunday column without any attribution.

A few hours later, Dowd responded to the accusations through an email to the Huffington Post. She blamed the oversight on a friend, claimed it was inadvertent and promised to set things right with added attribution on the Web version of the story and a correction in the paper today.

Dowd acted fast to correct the problem after it was discovered, but the question remains: will this mistake effect Dowd’s credibility moving forward?

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— DIANE CLEHANE

As I’ve been reporting for weeks, it was SRO at Michael’s today as the movers and shakers, undeterred by the unsettling economic news, were out in full force plotting their next big move — or looking for a safe place to land. On the menu today: plenty of talk about President Barack Obama‘s speech last night and the Oscars. There was a strong consensus that one was a big winner, while the other got surprisingly mixed reviews. While everyone in the audience on Oscar night thought Hugh Jackman killed, plenty of folks here were less than impressed. “Movie people don’t like Broadway,” sniped one Hollywood insider. “And it was too Broadway.” Okay then…

Everyone I talked to about President Obama’s speech felt his oratory skills are nothing short of amazing and that he struck just the right tone where he basically told us its time to pay the piper and think of our children’s future. Personally, I was impressed at his unflappable ability to mix his formal and seemingly off-the-cuff remarks with ease — and he didn’t even blink when he forgot to follow protocol and let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduce him. She had to stop him mid-sentence, but he never faltered. Talk about cool under pressure. But here’s what wowed the women in the dining room — his affectionate introduction of the First Lady Michelle Obama and her mouthing, ‘I love you’ back to her smitten husband. “They’re marriage is obviously hot,” one divorcee told me. I’m telling you, no one wants to admit it, but that’s what people are really talking about.

As for the president’s remarks, “Inspirational but realistic,” is how one media summed things up. Others were scratching their heads asking why Wall Street wasn’t feeling the same way. More than one person said, “With everyone feeling a little bit hopeful, I don’t get why the market is down.” (It had dropped by more than 100 points by lunch). A question for the ages, no doubt.

On a much lighter note, I asked the always dapper Dr. Gerald Imber what he thought of the Botox-ed beauties on Oscar’s red carpet. But this plastic surgeon to the stars never cuts and tells — “I didn’t watch,” he confessed. He laughed when I asked him why he’d pass up the chance to admire his handiwork and did offer his assessment on why movie stars make better plastic surgery patients than mere mortals: “They come in with headshots saying, ‘I’ve changed a little here, I want to fix this here.’ They know what they want. There’s no whining.”

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The ‘Imber Gang’: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina and Andy Bergman. Here’s a fun fact: A little birdie told me that Andy wrote the screenplay for Blazing Saddles. Now you know…

2. Hallmark honcho Henry Schleiff with two other well-dressed fellows

3. No one puts a lunch together like ‘The Mayor’: Joe Armstrong, Glamour editrix Cindi Leive, George Stevens and Kerry Kennedy. I was thrilled to meet George (who was sporting a very patriotic red, white and blue shirt and tie ensemble). He’s the man behind the television broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors and the amazing broadcast of the concert on the Mall in celebration of President Obama’s inauguration. Kerry and I met once before at a lunch given by Henry Schleiff in this very dining room, where we talked about her then yet-to-published book, Being Catholic Now. I was so fascinated by her interviews with the likes of Bill Maher and Gabriel Byrne (who spoke about being abused by a priest) that I got through the terrific tome twice. Today the conversation was all about how stirring and inspirational the group found the president’s speech last night. “It made me proud to be an American,” Kerry told me. And we both totally melted over the young school girl who was seated next to the First Lady having written to the White House looking for aid for her school, which is in a serious state of disrepair. “I had tears in my eyes,” said Kerry. She wasn’t the only one…

4. An early-arriving Matt Blank who chatted with Joe and I before The New Yorker‘s David Remnick and Lisa Hughes joined Showtime’s head honcho for lunch. I was happy to reconnect with Lisa. Way back when, she was my sales rep at Self when I was the marketing honcho for a fashion company. I knew then that Lisa was destined for big things at Conde Nast, and she’s risen through the ranks like the pro she is. Well done and congrats!

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CNN may equal politics, but the CNN Grill equals heaven. FBNY is currently inside the Grill drinking a chocolate milkshake with no plans to move, maybe ever. CNN has done a very good job of branding the convention space and the Grill (in our opinion) is the crowning glory. It’s a sort of conventioners oasis set up in the perimeter zone. You have to have a CNN credential to enter (or know someone who does) but once inside there is free food, and drink, and a dessert menu that includes a “make your own cupcakes” option.

It’s also the place for hungry and thirsty heavy-hitters. Rahm Emanuel is sitting at the front table with his children, CNN head Jon Klein has a booth to our left, LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting interviewed in front of us, and Nancy Pelosi and her entourage just sailed by. Anderson Cooper is chatting it up with Walter Isaacson and we think we just spotted Jeffrey Wright. Did we mention the free milkshakes? It’s also a bit of a mediabistro alumni lovefest — we’re sitting here with former FishbowlNYer Rachel Sklar and the original FishbowlDCer Garrett Graff…word on the twitter is that Patrick Gavin is on the way.

Bedroom videos, GQ-mandated Twitter-free zones, and all the other doings in Denver notwithstanding, the action isn’t there alone. Staging a protest this morning outside mbHQ (in an effort to get the attention of our Park Ave. South neighbor, the New York Democratic Party) were “Grandmothers Against the War.”

The group of approximately 20 sassy seniors bore signs, big flowered hats and balloons emblazoned with anti-war slogans as they spoke out against the ongoing conflict in Iraq. We’ve got the good word on what the grannies are liking and loathing about the DNC after the jump.

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Lots of talk today about women and blogging, much of it kicked off by the NYT‘s coverage of the annual BlogHer conference in San Francisco last week-end. The article was widely criticized by women in the blogosphere and many questioned whether the NYT was merely reinforcing the glass ceiling that BlogHer was set up to combat by running the piece in the Style section and by focusing on particularly feminine things like the bathroom setup, the lactation room, child care. Meanwhile, the Netroots gathering in Austin, which took place on the same week-end, received far more extensive coverage, and not just because Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi made appearances. Notes Jezebel’s Megan Carpentier: “A cursory search of the Times’ archives shows no less than 10 stories filed with the paper or its blogs during Netroots Nation…This weekend’s story on BlogHer was the first the Times had filed about the event.” Says Salon‘s Rebecca Traister,

The problem is not simply with the placement of one story, but with a newspaper that does not take “women’s stories” — in this case one that could have also been about business, technology, politics or gender as a social, economic or professional impediment to success — seriously enough to give them other, more newsy space in its pages.

Another publisher who apparently isn’t taking their online women’s stories very seriously is Conde Nast. The Observer is reporting that the publisher has a series of online “‘girl’-illa blogs” that it does not seem terribly interested in promoting. And why would they when print is so profitable these days! In the meantime, and until everyone else catches up, there’s always Jezebel.