The shadow of your smile.

• Author: Kinney, David

This time, we thought, it would be a no-brainer. Each year, as summer slips into fall, our editorial staff starts discussing who should be the magazine's Mover and Shaker of the Year. Since 1988, the January issue has carried a piece on the person we thought had the biggest impact on Tar Heel business or politics during the past year.

Most have been business leaders, usually CEOs of large corporations, though last year it was Esther Lentz, one of more than 5,000 North Carolina workers who lost their jobs when Pillowtex shut down. For us, she symbolized the displaced worker, whose plight we predicted would play a major role in the coming election. And it did, providing Democrats an issue around which to build their domestic agenda. It also framed the campaign of the first North Carolina resident to appear on the national ticket of a major party in more than 150 years. Though we had been critical of John Edwards' performance as a U.S. senator, when John Kerry picked him as his running mate, we figured we had little choice but to make him our Mover and Shaker of the Year.

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