A the year draws to a close get prepared for the usual onslaught of lists! We all know Time‘s Person of the Year is a non-compete, but I Want Media, which has just launched its yearly Media Person of the Year poll may provide a slightly more open playing field. Here are your choices: Arianna Huffington, Rachel Maddow, Sam Zell, Rupert Murdoch, Tina Fey, The Twitter Trio, Mel Karmazin, Jason Kilar, Eric Schmidt, and closest to our hearts, “The Laid-Off Journalist” (also, Page Six’s pick).

Think they left some out? They are also taking nominations. We would argue that due to his magazine and newspaper selling power (not to mention the YouTube fireside chats) Barack Obama is a obvious but viable choice. Also, how about the citizen journalist, or Tina Brown? Let us know your suggestions!

— DIANE CLEHANE

The Michael’s crowd was in full party mode today as television titans, media mavens and talking heads mingled gleefully with politicos who were celebrating Barack Obama‘s historic victory. “Finally, some good news!” exclaimed one of the regulars as he made his way into the jam-packed dining room. It seemed more than a bit poetic that on the eve of Camelot 2.0 Caroline Kennedy quietly made her way to table one, avoiding all the table-hopping and glad-handing that was going on around her. If there were any disappointed John McCain supporters in the room, they were keeping a low profile. Okay, Mary Matalin made the scene with hubby James Carville but she didn’t exactly look like she was celebrating. Everyone agreed Obama’s speech last night was stirring, but one observer offered this insight to chew on: “Sure it’s exciting, but it’s going to be pretty much impossible to live up to all this hype. The guy’s gotta be feeling some pressure.” If he is, he sure is wearing it well.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The Early Show: Saturday Night Live scribe James Signorelli; Second shift: Caroline Kennedy, Jimmy Buffett and his wife Jamie

2. Producer Jon Hart, Doug Steiner and another gent we didn’t get to meet…

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong, producer Susan Stroman (Young Frankenstein), uber-agent Ed Victor and his gorgeous wife Carol. A little birdie told me the ‘Mayor’ will be hosting one of his legendary lunches next week. We can’t wait!

4. Gerald Schoenfeld with an unidentified gent

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SNL has turned into must be seen on TV for the candidates, particularly in these last few weeks. John McCain appeared this last Saturday in what could alternately be viewed as a last ditch attempt to reach voters, or, a last ditch attempt to salvage what remains of his tattered reputation. And while his appearance with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin was quite funny and makes one wish this John McCain hadn’t gone AWOL for the last two months, it also leaves little doubt that if McCain loses tomorrow Palin is going to make for a very tempting scape goat. McCain on the ‘Weekend Update’ after the jump.

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The show must go on! They may be laying off and restructuring but apparently Time still has the ability to nominate the Person of the Year…with your help. Time managing editor Rick Stengel has posted this video on YouTube asking for your recommendations. Depending on the outcome of next week’s election we have too assume that Barack Obama is a bit of a shooin, though Sarah Palin could probably give him a run for his money along with Tina Fey — and that lineup folks is pretty much all you need to know about this year’s election! Anyway, as a former Person of the Year probably your vote will carry extra weight, so have at it.

Also, during her visit to SNL Sarah Palin offered to have Bristol babysit Tina Fey‘s toddler. Who needs fiction anymore when we have this election!

Remember how back in the late nineties no one could really imagine what life would be like after 2000? (And really, who among us could have envisioned YouTube?) And then everyone freaked out about Y2K and welded all the manhole covers shut in Manhattan. Well, with only eight days left to this long, strange, and extremely profitable election cycle it looks like the media may be experiencing their own sort of political Y2K. Says David Carr:

No more nights of watching Anderson Cooper make the eager hand-off to the wise David Gergen. Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly will have to make do with political autopsy, while Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will have to find humor speculating about those first 100 days. And if the current polls hold (and don’t hold your breath), Tina Fey might have to make do without Gov. Sarah Palin, along with the rest of us.

What will we watch! Perhaps more to the point in this calamitous media environment, how will advertisers make money? The last time we heard an industry panic this much over the conclusion of their favorite product was when Harry Potter ended.

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Will Ferrell‘s George W. Bush meets Tina Fey‘s Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is making a second appearance in People (they point do out that this is not the Sarah Palin of five weeks ago!) in what is turning out to be Sarah Palin Embraces the Media week! (Lately she’s been speaking more frequently with the press and even has an interview with heretofore ignored NBC anchor Brian Williams lined up).

In the layout Palin and snow machine-riding husband Todd chat about the pressures of the campaign trail as well as who Palin would like to see playing Todd along side Tina Fey (answer: Tim McGraw). Also Palin defends her reading habits: “I’m a voracious reader. Always have been. I appreciate a lot of information.” Currently she’s reading “heh heh, a lot of briefing papers” [emphasis theirs]. And for fun? The Looming Tower. However turns out she can’t actually attest to whether Obama is a nice guy or not cause she’s never met him [emphasis ours]. Later in the interview Palin also addresses the issue of her daughter’s teenage pregnancy.

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We actually only saw the cold open of SNL last night, and were a bit disappointed by Sarah Palin‘s appearance — the Tina Fey walk-by just didn’t live up to…any hype actually. However! Turns out we missed the best part. The Sarah Palin Rap! Amy Poehler should maybe get some kind of record deal for this, but, moreover, turns out Sarah Palin is a great sport. Not necessarily the kind of sport you want a heartbeat away from the presidency, but still. It also bears noting this is a rap done by a very pregnant woman comedian about a female, mother of five, Vice-Presidential candidate. Just saying. Watch the rap below and the opener after the jump.

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If you’re Tina Fey you can get a $6 million dollars book deal based on a handshake and a verbal pitch. However! If you’re Sarah Palin you can apparently ask the press for up to $15 million dollars for your emails. That’s right! Even better than selling the Gov.’s jet on ebay is selling the Gov.’s emails to the press. Okay, technically not selling (though, we imagine it’s probably just a matter of time on that front) but here’s a rough estimate of what it would cost the AP to get their hands on Palin’s emails (presuming they’re not Gawker readers).

When the Associated Press asked for all state e-mails sent to the governor’s husband, Todd Palin, her office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer’s time to assemble the e-mail of just a single state employee, then another two hours for “security” checks, and finally five hours to search the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87 an hour, that’s $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000 full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960.

There’s more!

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