Once again, the folks at Time Magazine are putting together their annual “Person of the Year” issue, in which the editors name the one individual or group that most embodies the previous 12 months. It probably comes as little surprise then that, according to the current number’s of Time’s online poll, the “99%” — the name given both to the movement behind the seemingly countless Occupy protests and to the general mass of people who feel that big banks have been given a pass while the rest of the country sputters — is in the lead.

Meanwhile, the “1%” — those very bankers being protested — are faring the worst in the poll, even beating out Casey Anthony, the Florida woman who was acquitted of charges that she murdered her young daughter.

Writes Time about the 99%-ers:

[T]hey’ve already succeeded in changing the national conversation from a focus on the debt to one of income inequality, opportunity inequality and a system they say has left too many people without a voice.

Perhaps surprisingly, the person who is running a relatively close second to the 99% isn’t one of the many politicians on the list like Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney or President Obama, or even a business titan like Steve Jobs, Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet. It’s not even the group of Arab protesters responsible for changes in the political climates of Egypt and Libya. Nope, it’s soccer superstar Lionel Messi.

But as Time points out, the actual “Person of the Year” is chosen by the magazine’s editors and “a person’s inclusion as a candidate in the poll doesn’t mean he, she or they are serious candidates to be named Person of the Year by the magazine.”

Check out the current standing and vote at Time.com.

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