Never mind Time Magazine. John McCain has his own pick for "Person of the Year": Gen. David Petraeus.

The Arizona senator and GOP presidential candidate said Wednesday at a foreign policy event in Boston with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that he disagreed with Time's pick -- Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and that given his druthers he'd choose the head U.S. military honcho in Iraq.

"I noticed that Time Magazine made President Putin the ... man of the year," McCain said. "I understand that probably, but my man of the year is one General David Petraeus, the general who has brought success  in Iraq."

McCain has reason to give thanks. Petraeus' recent progress in Iraq has helped validate McCain's unwavering support for the controversial troop surge.   

On top of that, McCain just received the endorsement of Democratic Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a pro-war ally. Though he's in fourth place nationally and can't seem to register in the polls in influential Iowa, McCain has had a surge of late in New England, where he planned a full day of campaign stops Wednesday in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  

As former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson start to fade in the early voting Granite State, McCain has made his way into second place in several recent New Hampshire polls. A Rasmussen poll from Dec. 18 showed him with 27 percent, just behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 31 percent. The survey of 746 likely Republican voters had a margin of error of 4 percent.

Kissinger said at the Boston event that he's not usually this active in a campaign, but that he feels McCain is the best pick for the country. Kissinger endorsed McCain early on in the race, but rarely appears with him on the campaign trail.

"The senator had five years in solitary figuring out who he is, and why he is doing, why he is serving his country," Kissinger said of McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "He has never had any other motive. And I'm not saying anybody else has other motives. But I'm saying ... he has had a unique experience in his life. And he has sometimes to his short term disadvantage, only asked one question -- what is best for America, but also what is best for freedom in the world. This is why I have supported him for 30 years."

For the record, Petraeus did make it into Time Magazine's list of runner-ups, along with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, former Vice President Al Gore and China President Hu Jintao.

FOX News' Malini Bawa contributed to this report.