No surprise here: Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating Person of 2008 is also Time’s Person of the Year in 2008. Barack Obama took the title as announced by Time magazine’s managing editor Wednesday on the Today show. And could you think of anyone more deserving than the President-elect? His motivational motto, “Yes we can” took America by storm and inspired a discouraged country to believe in the possibility of change.

“He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order,” Time reports in its cover story.

Runners-up included U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou.