a.) Afghanistan b.) Obama

It’s interesting how TIME’s editors visually weighted the past year — especially considering Obama’s wall-to-wall presence in ’08. Going by the layout, Afghanistan has moved to the center and the President — both shots from the inauguration, if I’m not mistaken, as opposed to capturing anything more substantive from his first year — has become peripheral to the war.

More detail and/or captions for several above from TIME slide show: Afghanistan/Flare; US Air/Hudson; Whale; Putin (similar); Obama/Michelle; Displaced women/Dafur; Capitol (top right – also inauguration?); Glove – Michael Jackson (variation); pic of Saturn (variation).