Time magazine cover

U.S.-based Time magazine has selected President-elect Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for 2008.

The magazine says Mr. Obama has risen to "dominate the public sphere" in his short time on the national scene.  It says the incoming president overcame "centuries of the social pecking order" to become the first African-American elected to the White House.

Time is also praising Mr. Obama for the swift and business-like manner in which he has assembled his administration, beginning the very day after his historic election. 

The president-elect tells the magazine there are a number of issues he hopes to resolve over the next two years, including putting the U.S. economy back on track, closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention camp, and withdrawing troops from Iraq. 

Among the many dignitaries who have been named Person of the Year by Time are Irish rock singer Bono, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani, and three of the most recent U.S. presidents: outgoing President George Bush, his father George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.