New Years Predictions
By The Contributors Posted in 2008 — Comments (55) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Here's what we think will happen next year. Put yours in the comments.
Ben Domenech
No one at the New York Times will admit they were wrong about anything in Iraq.
Mark Sanford will be the VP choice for whoever the GOP nominee is, and deservedly so.
Newspaper circulations will continue to decline. But some magazine circulations will actually increase.
Quietly one Friday night, Webkinz will power on and conquer the earth using their Martian mind control devices. No one will notice.
ESPN will devote an entire new channel to covering Barry Bonds.
The tyrannical reign of Roger Goodell over the NFL will get worse, not better.
Mitt Romney will not see the Patriots win the World Series.
Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States.
Read on . . .
Hunter Baker
- Fred is out after Iowa.
- McCain wins New Hampshire.
Jeff Emanuel
- Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination for President (I don't want to finish this thought)
- The Congressional elections won't go as bad for Republicans as many think.
- Pakistan will descend into bloody civil war, and Pervez Musharraf will not last the year (whether that means that he will be driven from power or assassinated is a little less clear). The US will be blamed by many -- especially within the US.
- The US will push an Indian nuclear deal through in an effort to solidify ties with that country as its neighbor, Pakistan, tears itself apart.
- George W. Bush will remain President for the entirety of the year, but will voluntarily step down from power three weeks into 2009.
- The situation in Iraq will continue to improve, making it less of a factor in the November elections.
- Improvement in Iraq will only last until American troop withdrawals are under way.
- One of the major networks -- CBS, ABC, NBC -- will again be caught airing fabrications just before the November election.
- The Patriots will finish the NFL season 19-0, beating the Dallas Cowboys 41-29 in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady will be the league MVP and Randy Moss the Super Bowl MVP.
- The Boston Red Sox, behind Josh Beckett and Johan Santana, will repeat as World Series champions, beating the San Diego Padres in five games.
- LSU will win the BCS championship, beating Ohio State 33-13.
- Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina will all be won by different Republicans presidential candidates.
- Ron Paul will make a third party run for President, and will receive less than 6% of the vote.
- The Libertarian Party will win zero seats in the November elections, yet will continue to claim to be a viable third party in US politics.
Neil Stevens
- Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination in a walk, with people forgetting some close early races after she destroys the competition on Super Tuesday. The Republican nomination will be won by someone other than Ron Paul.
- The Republican will go on to hold the party just unified enough, while the Democrat will see a base just split enough by third party pacifists, to let the Republican take one of Ohio or Michigan, and the Presidency, on yet another nervous election night.
- In other news on election night, Harry Reid wins two more years as Majority Leader, while the House ends up so that the Republican and Democratic 'moderates' will have strength in directing the agenda, regardless of who ends up Speaker.
- Efforts to get socialized medicine in California will ultimately fail, and the defeat of the left here will inspire court challenges to programs in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
- The Dodgers will win at least a playoff game. The Lakers will have home court advantage and win a playoff series.
- Apple will face peak iPod + iTunes, as their market share caps out on the hardware side, and competition on the content side heats up. Herd-mentality investors won't panic, though, because the iPhone will still be printing money for them.
- BluRay defeats HD-DVD by TKO.
- Red State will get even better.
Dan McLaughlin
- Mitt Romney will not be elected President, nor come within 100 electoral votes of being elected President.
- Pakistan will make more headlines in 2008 than Iraq and Iran combined.
- Barry Bonds will hit 20 home runs for the Oakland A's. His trial will not be completed in 2008, but will end in a hung jury.
- Britney Spears will not get less crazy.
- The writers' strike will be resolved in early March.
- Republicans will gain seats in the House, but not enough to regain a majority, and will lose one seat in the Senate.
- Ted Stevens will be out of the Senate by Election Day.
- The Supreme Court will issue a decision in early July regarding detainees in Guantanamo that will satisfy nobody. Justices Stevens and Scalia will file scathing opinions denouncing the plurality.
- Unlike in 1992, when the press ignored current economic news to focus on the prior year's bad news, and 2000, when the press ignored current economic news to focus on the prior year's good news, the media will rediscover leading economic indicators with a vengeance in 2008, after ignoring them since 2002.
- Mark Sanford will receive the GOP nomination for the Vice Presidency. And deserve it.
- Al Gore will make a very large amount of money.
- The Patriots will finish the regular season undefeated and face the Colts in the AFC Championship game. The game will not be close.
- Amazing medical breakthroughs will be made without the help of embryonic stem cell research.
- Johan Santana will be traded to the Yankees.
- Nothing will be done by the United States government about illegal immigration, abortion, health care for the uninsured, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the solvency of Medicare or Social Security, the estate tax, gun control, or same-sex marriage.
Mark Kilmer
- The North and South poles will continue to freeze and to thaw as expected during this natural climate cycle.
- Al Gore, what with all his eco-green brokerage firms, is finally listed in the Fortune 500 as one of the wealthiest Americans. Purchasing the requisite carbon credits would knock him from this lofty perch, so he famously utters: "Carbon credits are for little people." (At 475 pounds, he is not a little person.)
- Life and conditions in Iraq continue to stabilize and improve. The Iraqi security forces continue to assume control of their own country, and the United States is able to reduce the number of troops included in its military presence on a course to be at 60% by the end of the year.
- The State Department forces Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki to resign. He is ultimately replaced by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd.
- The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, orders Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad killed and declares a religious dictatorship in his country. The United Nations Security Council attempts to respond with outrage, but the U.S. and Britain yawn and abstain while the PRC vetoes the resolution for kicks.
- The Democrats nominate the Clintons as their Presidential candidate and the Republican carries the day on November 4. The Republicans manage to hold the line in the Senate and pick up several seats in the House, fueled in large part by good news coming out of Iraq.
- Desperate for ratings, CBS moves Kute Katie Couric to a 60 Minutes beat and hires whoever does the Weekend Update skit on SNL to take over as anchor of their Evening News.
- The New York Yankees trade for Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana and they return to the World Series, this time beating the Pujols-less St. Louis Cardinals in four games. (Albert Pujols will be swallowed by the Earth's crust in a playoff game against the Phillies.)
Erick Erickson
- John McCain gets the Republican nomination. Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination. Michael Bloomberg and Ron Paul go third party and nowhere. John McCain wins.
- RedState grows and gets even better.
- Pakistan calms down quickly. Lebanon heats up quickly. Bush moves troops into Israel quietly to assist in the Bekah Valley. We stay in Iraq, which gets less and less media attention as it goes better and better over there.
- China economically implodes. So does Europe.
- Europeans finally have enough of the EU and multiculturalism. Riots spread from France, led by farmers.
- The 2008 Box Office has more hits than the 2007 Box Office. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince does much better than Order of the Phoenix because Steve Kloves comes back.
- Spending does not go down, but all politicians will continue talking about reducing spending.
- The GOP loses seats in the House and Senate. Boehner is replaced by Cantor. McConnel is not replaced.
- Bobby Jindal's reform agenda in Louisiana garners national media attention. He is largely successful in his initial endeavors. The institutional corruption, however, begins to slow him as the year winds down. He then begins strategic smaller changes to collapse the institution.
California Yankee
- Edwards and Romney win the Iowa caucuses.
- McCain and Obama win the New Hampshire Primary.
- The Republican nominee wins the Presidential election.
- The GOP regains the House, but loses ground in the Senate.
- Pelosi is replaced as Speaker.
- Osama bin Laden is captured.
- Mike Bloomberg will run for president as an independent.
Leon Wolf
- The Republicans will lose seats in both the House and Senate, but will retain the White House.
- The Republican Presidential nominee will be... nah, there's no way I'm crazy enough to try and predict that.
- The SEC will go at least 6-2 in their bowl games, and both SEC teams will win their BCS bowl games.
- The Vanderbilt Commodores football team will continue the nation's longest bowl drought (among power conference teams). The Vandy B-Ball team will finish the season in the top 12 and make the Elite 8 in the tournament.
- The Boston Red Sox will repeat as World Series Champs.
- The New England Patriots will win the 2008 Super Bowl.
- In an effort to show the netroots how important they are to the Democratic party, impeachment hearings will *not* be held on the floor of the House.
- At least one prominent lefty will slip up and publicly suggest that someone ought to assassinate George W. Bush.
- Movie receipts will actually be down again this year.
- Apple will release at least three new versions of the iPod/iPhone.
- Erick and Clayton will buy them all.
Mark I
- Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic Party's nominee. Barack Obama will.
- Rudy Giuliani will be the Republican Party nominee and will select a southern governor as his running mate. (Sanford or Barbour...Sanford or Barbour)
- There will not be a brokered convention on the Republican side.
- Rudy Giuliani will win the presidency with between 50 and 53% of the vote. He will carry all of George W. Bush's states and add PA, NJ, and MN.
- Republicans will lose 2 seats in the Senate, and gain between 5-10 seats in the House.
- Pervez Musharraf will be assassinated and Pakistan will descend into choas.
- US troops will enter Pakistan's Waziristan province over the mountains to go after al-Qaeda training camps there. Indian troops will mass along the Pakistani border to prevent the bloodshed from spilling over. They will fail.
- Iraq will continue to progress toward stability and US troops will shift from there to Afghanistan to support operaitons against the Taliban. There will be no major terror attacks in Iraq, but there will also be no breakthrough political settlements.
- Iran will announce that it has converted uranium into fissile material suitable for a nuclear weapon.
- The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will fail. They will achieve an agreement, but it will never be fully implemented as Hamas sabotages the process by starting another intifada in Gaza.
- North Korea will be found to be cheating on its agreement to disclose all of its clandestine nuclear programs. Such revelation will come after it has received all of the benefits promised to it in the agreement.
- Brittany Spears will star in a remake of The Coal Miner's Daughter in an attempt to resurrect her career.
- Charlie Wilson's War will win the Oscar for best picture of 2007. Tom Hanks will win Best Actor. Julia Roberts will win Best Actress. Director Mike Nichols will not win Best Director.
- The New England Patriots will not win the Super Bowl. Neither will the Dallas Cowboys.
- Apple will introduce a 3G iPhone which will be available on three cellular carriers by the end of the year.
Academic Elephant
1) National frustration over 1000 people in Iowa decisively influencing the selection of Presidential nominees will lead to an overhaul of the primary process.
2) Third and fourth party candidates will play a significant role in the election.
3) New highs in the price of oil and lows in the dollar will be the Democrat talking points in the election. Both these will go the way of the "jobless recovery" in 2009.
4) Steny Hoyer will replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. It will be ugly.
5) Mitch McConnell will replace Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader.
6) High-level assassination attempts will become terrorist groups' chosen atrocity du jour, replacing attacks on civilians.
7) Civil unrest in Venezuela and Iran will threaten to destabilize both Latin America and the Middle East. This will be understood by the editorial board of the New York Times as a Bad Thing and the fault of feckless Bush administration policy.
8) By contrast, Colombia and Iraq will appear to be bastions of regional stability. This will not be understood at all by the mystified editorial board of the New York Times, but the one thing they will be certain of is that it is not to the credit of feckless Bush administration policy.
9) The major networks and CNN will refuse to air a story on the rampant fraud and abuse in the "carbon credit" industry. This will become the Rathergate of 2008.
10) The Phillies will beat the Red Sox in the World Series. Leon will need therapy. Go Phils!
Moe Lane
1). Hillary Clinton will get the Democratic nomination for President.
2). The Republican nominee for President will be chosen at the convention, and his - it will be a he - running mate will be someone who is not currently running.
3). Immigration will be the primary issue for the GOP in 2008.
4). The economy will be the primary issue for the Democratic Party in 2008.
5). Ron Paul will run as a third-party candidate, and accomplish nothing whatsoever.
6). Hillary Clinton will run for the Presidency while strenuously avoiding having to talk about the War in Iraq at all.
7). The Democratic Party will, some time in March, quietly shift from condemning the War in Iraq to congratulating itself for making the President impose the Surge.
8). Iraq will continue to improve. Iran and Syria will stay about the same. Russia will get worse.
9). The House will see a net gain in Republican-held seats. The Senate will stand essentially pat. Oh, and a special note to the antiwar Left? If you want a picture of the future, imagine a neoconservative boot stamping on a your carefully-laid plans - for ever. Even if I'm wrong on 9).
10). Fidel Castro will finally die. The President will wait 24 hours and then recognize the damn country, already.
Alexham:
(1) McCain will win the GOP nomination, and then beat HRC to become the 44th president of the United States;
(2) Judge Janice Rogers Brown will beome the first African-American female supreme-court justice:
(3) Notre Dame will win nine football games;
(4) At least three additional states will abolish the death penalty; and
(5) People will continue to die in Darfur, and the UN will continue not doing anything about it.
Pejman Yousefzadeh
-Hillary Clinton will be the wounded and bloodied nominee of the Democratic Party.
-John McCain will win the Republican nomination, though I would be glad for Fred to prove me wrong.
-McCain will win the Presidency in a close vote.
-Javier Bardem will win "Best Supporting Actor" for his role in No Country For Old Men.
-The New England Patriots will be upset by the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game. The Colts will go on to repeat as Super Bowl Champions.
-The Chicago Cubs will win the World Series in 2008 (hey, someone has to make this prediction).
-Vladimir Putin will continue to consolidate his power in Russia. More people will take note and be alarmed.
-Free trade will continue to be buffeted by the political currents of the day, a fact that will lead to lousy policymaking.
-I will continue to fight against the protectionist and mercantilist trend.
-Isiah Thomas will . . . oh, I don't even know whether he will be fired or not.
-I will post lots of content to RedState.
-Thomas Crown will return . . . someday.
Blackhedd
2008 will be a year of fundamental but largely unseen transformations in the global economy.
The three most important drivers will be:
- Continued demand-growth and foreign direct investment in emerging economies;
- A global credit freeze.
- The emergence of sovereign wealth funds as critical players in global finance.
These drivers will completely re-do the basis for global economic activity, but surface-effects will dominate the news, masking the deeper movements. Among these effects will be:
- A continuation of pretty decent economic performance (including strong job creation and not-bad wage growth) in the US and Europe. Japan will not recover from its current endemic low growth.
- Continued extremely low interest rates in all markets. Investment-grade corporate credits (now approximately a $2 trillion market) will participate in the low-rate environment. All other credit classes will suffer from low issuance, poor liquidity, and high rate spreads.
Wild card factors will include food-price inflation and political instability in oil-producing regions. Don't look to the prices of oil, gold and the dollar for clues to the outlook. Copper and nickel will give better clues.
The outlook for US financial markets is opaque. A year ago in this space, I predicted that 2007 would close with the DJIA at 13,500. It was at that level a week ago, and will finish the year at about 13,350. But for 2008, I make no predictions whatsoever in specific markets. I would be least surprised to see stocks finish around 14,200, with massive swings in either direction during the year.
The outlook for the US economy is very complex. Aggregate measures (GDP, productivity, job and wage growth) will continue moderately strong, in spite of ongoing distress in the housing/construction sectors, and there will be no "official" recession. However, the top-level news will mask extreme sectoral rotation as the US rapidly adjusts to new conditions in the global economy.
Among other things, this means that traditional job-security and benefits guarantees will continue to weaken. Therefore, the 2008 political season will see a surprisingly strong bottom-up emphasis on healthcare issues, while immigration issues will recede.
Whoever wins the 2008 election, the groundwork will be laid for a national healthcare delivery system of one kind or another. This will be the most important policy change in terms of US economic management.
Geopolitically, the year will see surprising stability, as a balanced multipolar world similar to that of the late 19th century begins to emerge. There will be no lack of regional conflicts, all of them likely to be easily contained. The potential for escalation to global conflict remains very small but not zero.
The Beijing Olympics in August will come off with no major disruptions and will be judged a complete success. Don't forget that the targets of this grand PR campaign are not in the US.
The US elections are a total tossup. I predict that neither John Edwards nor Ron Paul will be elected President of the US. No other outcome will surprise me.
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New Years Predictions 55 Comments (0 topical, 55 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Still no pitching, SLC. Unless we pick up an additional starter, we're toast. It remains to be seen what the other guys do in the offseason and what LaRussa does with the new composition of the outfield.
And (unfortunately) Blunt has a ways to go against Nixon. I think we may see some coattails on that one - if the GOP POTUS nominee does well, Blunt may benefit from that. I would think that the current climate in MO would do well by Blunt, but it doesn't seem to be happening so far...
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
....but his numbers have continued to steadily improve. The hysteria over his medicaid cuts has finally begun to subside since he has reinstituted state services for many folks (admittedly, I think he was wrong to cut off people in wheelchairs and the like).
It won't be an easy election for Blunt, and I may be a bit optimistic, but if Hillary is the Dem nominee, I say Blunt's chances are better than 50%.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
...you may be right there. I meant a *distant* third - although that may be optimistic. I could easily see us collapse and finish 4th or last.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
Fred D. Thompson wins the Republican nomination.
John Edwards wins the Democrat nomination.
Thompson wins the '08 Presidential election with 49 of the 50 states going to him.
Edwards carries Arkansas after naming Huckabee and Clinton his co-vice-presidential running mates (really is this a surprise?)
Bill Clinton 'disappears' after Hillary loses the nomination and the bid for vice-president.
Dallas Cowboys win the SuperBowl, handing the NE Patriots their first loss.
Bryant Gumbal finally gets shown the door by the NFL Network.
Texas Proud and Texas Loud
so you can understand the mistake, right?
Texas Proud and Texas Loud
Especially because it is somewhat uncool to call him by his REAL proper name [edited for length and content]:
Bryant Monotonous Incompetent Dallas-Hating Mental Lightweight [edited]-ing [edit]-[edit]-er Prison-[edit] Left-Wing Commie [edit] [edit] StreetWalking [edit] Gumbel.
He and Collinsworth are the greatest going argument FOR the cable companies not to yield to the NFL Network.
Stare decisis is fo' suckas -- Feddie
1. The primaries will give the perception of a brokered convention. At the precisely right moment, Franz Prince of Dogness shows up and saves the day. He is the consensus nominee. He goes on to win in a landslide that gives the GOP veto proof majorities in both houses.
2. The Party officially changes the meaning of "GOP" from Grand Old Party to Great Old Pooch.
3. The Arizona Cardinals don't make the playoffs.
4. Larry Craig does something stupid.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Those are predictions in the same way that "The sun will rise tomorrow" is a prediction. Except for #2, I'm pretty sure that Franz is too modest to allow such a gaudy accolade.
He feels, and I certainly agree, that the Party needs to rally around the right personality who's right on the issues. Kinda like we rallied around the Reagan guy.
He's not doing it to feed his ego, he's doing it to strengthen the Party.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
5. The Congressional/Bush "mortgage fix" will have no effect.
6. There will be a bigger mortgage crisis in 2008.
7. The real estate market, it what used to be "hot" markets, will drop at least 20% from where it is today. And another 20% in 2009.
8. Mrs908 will again be the "Best Wife and Mother on Earth" for the 28th consecutive year. In honor of her accomplishment, I will forget the date of the award and get to watch it on video and her sons will have their wife/significant other send her an e-card. She'll love the e-cards and treasure them. She'll tolerate me for another year. Franz will give her a slurpy kiss on her cute little nose. Life will be good at the 908s.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
The Mets will win the NL East, make the WS, and lose to the Red Sox.
John McCain will be elected President in November.
Casualties in Iraq will continue to decrease, and some liberal will make the case that's a bad thing because it means we stay longer.
US will send troops to Waziristan.
Philadelphia Eagles stick with McNabb, get a WR, and make the Super Bowl.
Matt Drudge's relevance declines.
Republicans lose more seats in House and Senate. Boehner retires after the losses and Cantor replaces him.
Will Ferrell will make me laugh.
-- Pain for the Democrats, whose candidate HRC will lose in a pretty close and very bitter battle with [one of these -- Fred, Mitt, Rudy].
--Pain for the New England Patriots, who will fail in their bid for 19-0 glory by losing to the Colts in the AFC Championship
--Pain for the Treason "Drive-By" Media, who will see not only the Dems lose in November, but their own influence dwindling as alternate media rise in competence, professionalism, and distribution.
--Pain for global jihad, whose adherents had hung their hopes for renewed vigor on the defeat of America's Republican candidate. The US will take off the gloves, pick up a birch switch and get NASTY with the global war. The power and zeal of global jihadists will begin its fade in earnest, even though the long war may not be essentially over for 20 years.
--Pain for conservatives in the Republican party -- while we keep the White House, we will lose the Senate (only for 2 years FWIW). Conservative efforts to wrest power over the GOP from the squishes will not succeed in the short run. In the House, however, new conservative blood continues its rise -- that day is coming.
Stare decisis is fo' suckas -- Feddie
Romney will win the R nomination for president in a process that will go all the way down to the wire.
Clinton will win the D nomination for president.
During the election between the 2 of them the MSM will be so over the top in pushing Clinton and Bashing Romney that they will effectively destroy the last dregs of credibility that they have. Many major news organizations will go out of business.
We will loose seats in the Senate, but make modest gains in the house. After the election all three branches of government will be in D hands.
The MSM will discover, within days of the election, that the economy is actually doing quite well. They will report this exhaustively even after it begins to nosedive in mid to late 2009.
The 2012 election will see the most "Plugged In" electorate ever and that election is one where the blogs will have almost as much importance as Kos etc. thinks they do now.
Clinton will be elected president. She will serve 1 term, it will be widely regarded as a failure.
Iraq will get better. Pakistan and Afghanistan will get worse. US troops will re-deploy to counter the trouble spots.
As Pakistan teeters on the edge, Bush will send troops in to secure the nukes. This will be successful, but will push that country over the edge into outright civil war. Dems, the UN, and the rest of the usual suspects will blame the unrest on the US and Bush.
No major terror attack will occur on US Soil.
At least one major terror attack will occur in Europe.
As a result of this attack, and amid increasing uneasiness about their large minority immigrant populations, Old Europe will sharply curtail immigration, and Germany and France will send additional troops to Afghanistan.
The US will make no progress on our own immigration front. The fence will not be built, employer sanctions will be tied up in litigation. Eventually the issue will quietly dropped.
1. There will be more results showing that embryonic stem cells without therapeutic cloning are a blind alley. New ways will be found to turn adult cells into pluripotent/totipotent cells
2. The sun will continue to dominate all other factors governing our weather
3. The republican party retains control of the whitehouse we lose ground in the congress. This is a consequence of how we cast our party. Our issues are more aimed at the whitehouse than congress.
4. Congress continues to do little or nothing for the year. This is appreciated by the country, which lobbies to give them more vacation time.
5. There will be more infomercials as every bit of television bandwidth is used to promote crappy chinese products and get rich yesterday schemes.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Iowa-R
Romney
Huckabee
Thompson
Iowa -D
Obama
Clinton
Edwards
NH-R
McCain
Romney
Paul
NH-D
Obama
Clinton
SC-R
Thompson
McCain
Huckabee
SC-D
Obama
Clinton
Fred Thompson wins the Republican nomination
Obama wins the Democrat nomination
Edwards drops out before NH
Hillary divorces Bill before the election (she does not need him anymore, and blames him for the bad press in Iowa)
Fred beats Obama with over 350 Electoral Votes. Democrats and the Hate America First crowd say Americans are racists, as shown a southern white man beats a black man.
Republicans lose 1 Senate seat-Virginia, and win 1 Senate seat-Louisiana, for a push.
Republicans gain a slight majority in the house, due to the weak Obama ticket.
The cubs win the world series (you just never know!-or proof the rest of my predictions are completely wrong)
- I will be drafted due to expanding wars
- Bloomberg will not run
- Dems will not win presidency
- McCain, Fred, and Huck bow out before Feb 5th
I will continue to struggle.
- Hillary Clinton wins election, but electors in Electoral College die as they are engulfed by an unforeseen wave of glaciation that buries Washington DC
- Congress saves its derriere and elects Al Gore as president, under condition that he admit the hockey stick image was correct but reversed.
- Al Gore accepts presidency from his place in San Francisco, now an inland city
- Housing market recovers as millions of people move South and need homes
- Hedge funds thrive, as traders and rest of Wall Street community continue their antics, unaware of glaciation that buried NYC
- 250 million million Chinese cross new land bridge into North America and move into US
- President Gore signs legislation funding fence on Mexican border. Hailed as landmark of bipartisan cooperation by NYT and Wapo.
- Hillary announces bid for 2012, and declares that hers will be the first prefunded candidacy in US history.
- Arkansas will beat Mizzou in the Cotton Bowl with Felix Jones and Darren McFadden rushing for a combined 342 yards.
- The Republican Convention will be worth watching because no candidate will have the nomination in hand.
- The Patriots win a few games and a shiny trophy because Jessica Simpson showed up at the Super Bowl and distracted Tony Romo.
- Edwards has a surprising finish in Iowa, followed closely by Obama and Hillary.
- The GOP retains the White House, but the day after the election, the Drive-by Media begins its coverage of "The Race to the White House: 2012" in an attempt to make the president-elect a lame duck before he is even sworn in.
Missouri 38, Arkansas 7
Mizzou shuts down McFadden (even tho' he did finally break 100). Jones actually looked like a much better runner in that one, despite running for only 45. Tony Temple shattered the Cotton Bowl record for TDs and rushing yards and makes McFadden look like an also-ran.
If not for the BCS screwing, I'd say "top 5" for MU...we'll see. LSU in the championship game? Hmmmmm.....
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
-The Pats will win the Super Bowl, the Red Sox will repeat, Boston fans will complain about how the Bruins never win anything.
-The winner of Michigan-Ohio State, having beat exactly one big-time team, will argue that it should be in the 2009 BCS championship game.
-Enough Dems now supporting Obama will come to the conclusion that Clinton has a better chance in November, and sweep her to the nomination early on. She tries to sew up the Hispanic and western vote by naming Richardson running mate.
-Huckabee wins Iowa, McCain wins New Hampshire, the GOP freaks out about having Huckabee as nominee, we nominate McCain.
-The Dems will continue to assail the Electoral College, and claim that the national popular vote is more than an interesting statistic.
-Bush will continue to support a federal "Abstinence only" sex ed. program, rather than question how sex ed actually affects interstate commerce and propose that it should be left to the states.
-Although nobody here cares, West Ham will beat Arsenal at least once, and climb to the top eight in the Premiership, gaining a spot in the UEFA cup. Man U repeats as Premiership champions.
"Now the Senate is looking for 'moderate' judges, 'mainstream' judges. What in the world is a moderate interpretation of a constitutional text? Halfway between what it says and what we'd like it to say?"
Justice Scalia
1) Duncan Hunter will surpise all by taking "at least 3" of the primaries (one being Texas) making him a force to be reckoned with come convention day 9/4/08.
2)Texas Goes Blue in '08. All 34 electoral votes go to the dem's and John Cornyn loses his senate seat to Rick Noriega. link
3) All of the above
4) None of the above
Ha! DD
1. One of the presumptive nominees for President after Super Tuesday will not be nominated at their party’s convention.
2. The instability in Pakistan gives the U.S. the excuse it needs to go get Osama out of the cave he’s been hiding in.
3. There will be a “credible” third party candidate for President that is neither Michael Bloomberg nor Ron Paul, though both may still give it a shot.
4. The War on Terror will not be a top three issue during the home stretch of the Presidential General Election. The top 3 issues will be 1) The Economy, 2) Health Care, and 3) Taxes.
5. Democrats maintain control of both the House and Senate. Pelosi keeps her job, Harry Reid does not.
Iowa goes comfortably to Huckabee, Romney makes a big speech and goes negative in panic mode against McCain, who trounces him in New Hampshire (see ya, Mitt - I surely hope so on this one!!)
Romney endorses Rudy and leaves some parting shots at McCain.
South Carolina tips the thing upside down by electing not Huckabee, but Thompson as their pick. Rudy is gleefully beaming at his chances
Rudy pulls out all the stops for February 5th. But outside a narrow victory in Florida, it's McCain who wins the bulk of the states as he rides the favorable coverage from MSM, who insist on covering this "comeback story" feverishly.
Back-tracking a bit, the big sports story is that the mighty Patriots go down in Foxborough in the AFC title game by a 31 - 28 score to their hated rivals, the Indianapolis Colts.
Colts win the SB against Dallas. The rest of the country shrugs knowing there is an onslaught of Peyton Manning commercials coming.
Czar Hillary cruises to the nomination on the Dem side and has it wrapped up by Feb 5th. The establishment pleads for her to pick Obama as her running mate, but fearing a complete slaughter in the south, she goes with Jim Webb of Virginia.
McCain wins the squeaker and takes Mike Huckabee as his Veep pick.
McCain beats Hillary for the White House as all of those "democratic leaning" independents line up behind the Arizona senator, as well as several thousand democrats who just can't stand Hillary. Hillary claims voter fraud because her pollsters insist the country is trending blue.......
Congress goes even further to the Dems on both sides.
Detroit absolutely demolishes the American League en route to a World Series victory - over the Chicago Cubs, who are "celebrating" the 100th anniversary of winning their last series......wait til next year.....
Absolutely nothing is done on the immigration front, but lots of pandering to the electorate takes place.
The dems put another NONBINDING resolution together demanding a withdrawal time......and this time they mean it!
I STILL won't get what I want for Christmas ;)
Anybody but Romney - Go GOP!!
1. Few predictions listed above will materialize.
2. Hell will freeze over.
3. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will curse at each other on live TV before the end of the year.
4. Pakistan will cease to be a sovereign nation.
5. Both Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell will give keynote speeches at one of the major party conventions. Any guesses?
Jeremiah 17:9.
Now what do I win? :D
Texas Proud and Texas Loud
- Rudy Giuliani receives more than 300 electoral votes to defeat Hillary Clinton.
- Ohio State buries LSU in the stupidly-named BCS championship game. Undefeated Hawaii also wins its bowl game, which means that the hue and cry for a real Div. I-A football championship will only grow.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers, a 13-point underdog, defeat the New England Patriots in the latter's first playoff game. The Steelers go on to face Indianapolis in the AFC championship game, whereas Green Bay defeats Dallas in the NFC championship game. The Super Bowl hype is all about the quarterback matchup (Brett vs Peyton or Ben), much to the chagrin of Tom Brady, who didn't expect to be watching it from home.
- McDonald's announces that over half their restaurants are now open 24 hours, and that by the end of 2011 over 99 percent of their restaurants will at least have the drive-up window open 24 hours.
- The Republicans will win enough House seats to get a razor-thin majority, and will pick up one Senate seat to split the Senate 50-50.
- Foo Fighters will win the award once again for best rock album of the year.
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Finrod's First Law of Bandwidth:
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it takes the bandwidth of ten thousand.
pure fantasy about them, but they were very entertaining!
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
I won't tell you why either.
Hillary Clinton will win more votes in primaries but will not be the nominee for the Democrats. They will run someone of the caliber of Mike Gravel, as that is all they will have left.
John McCain will win the Republican nomination.
John McCain will be elected President.
The ticket will be McCain-Thompson.
The federal prison population will grow nearly exponentially.
Democrats will not win a national election in 50 years from 2008.
There will be many recess appointments early in the year.
Some large well known organizations will cease to exist.
Some well funded organizations will cease to exist.
Hollywood will see the light around July but won't start trying to make amends until August.
and finally,
I'll say why.
Proudly Supporting Patriots At http://www.countryaboveself.com
Just thought I'd kindly point out that your post resembles more of supporting domestic terrorism than it does supporting any semblance of patriotism.
::shrugs::
We've had this 'perception' problem before. Don't assume.
Proudly Supporting Patriots At http://www.countryaboveself.com
Not so sure about that... if Wal-Mart is behind HD (and it appeared they were getting behind it this Xmas season with their $98 HD-DVD players on black Friday and $198 HD-DVD players after that), then Bluray gets knocked out. Wal-Mart has enough power to end the format war all on their own, and with the HD equipment and media manufacturing process being cheaper, that works in their favor.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
...influence in this one also, since they're essentially selling Blu-Ray players with a game console bundled in. But I'm hoping they get their butts whooped on this one - I'm sick and tired of their proprietary format obsession.
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
It's been another huge disappointment for Sony. I'm not sure if it is ever going to really recover and capture the #2 spot, much less than #1 spot.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
I think neither will catch on with the public. Digital is the future and people will flock toward being able to download movies from the internet. The DVD is a dying media and major telecommunication companies will partner with studios to sell movies and TV shows through their box that you can save forever on a hard drive.
Otherwise who wants a movie that takes three days to download.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Bandwidth is still a huge issue. I got 512kpbs with no upgrade in sight. I'm not going to be downloading any movies any time soon.
You also have to use some pretty serious compression on even SD movies to get them to a reasonable size that someone would want to download or store. A standard dual layer holds 9gb. Most commercial DVDs are in the 6-9gb range. Dual layer HD discs hold 30gb so the problem is a whole lot worse... with bigger discs on the horizon. Supposedly there's 50, 100, and even 200gb prototypes out there. That's a lot of data.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
HDTV 1080P Roughly 8 gig H.264
SDTV has no problem being stored in roughly 700 MB to roughly 1.4 GIG
And thats been available for about 8 years now.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
If you really want a 1080P picture, I could see not wanting to compress the heck out of it just so you can download it.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
The reason I said it: the PS3. Sony paid dearly in the game market by insisting on supporting the format on it. Now the format will benefit.
1) Edwards will beat Obama and Hillary because when push comes to shove those Democrats simply cannot trust a black man or a woman. He will easily defeat Mike Huckabee when the latter fails to answer the question "What is the capital of Mexico"?
2) The Patriots will win every thing because of the deal Belichick made with Satan.
3) Bill O'Reilly will finally lose his sanity and become a big old bleeding heart commie lib.
4) The war in Iraq will start to wind down, but a new hotspot will flair up, probably in palestine or Lebanon. President Edwards will invade, to prove he is not really a "candy-ass".
5) Al Gore will start to recruit ecological suicide bombers for the destruction of the "earth-rape industrial complex"
6) Cindy Shehan will become an Islamic convert and lead a popular movement for all ugly women to wear a burka.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
- The Patriots win the Super Bowl.
- The Tigers will sweep the Cubs in the World Series crushing Chicagoans once again.
- Hilary will win the Democratic primary in a landslide.
- Rudy will sneak by in one of the ugliest and hotly contested GOP primaries in history.
- Hilary will beat Rudy by a slim margin in the general election.
- The GOP will lose 10 House seats and 3 Senate seats (sorry, just a lot more Republican seats up for grabs).
- I will cry myself to sleep on election night.
- Russia becomes a MUCH bigger problem.
- Dollar will slowly come back after a rough start to the year. Markets will remain up and down all year. One large financial company will go belly up after huge scandals and accounting issues are uncovered.
- Every phone company on the planet will have a phone out copying the iPhone.
- People will get sick of and start revolting against "celebrity news". Networks covering Paris Hilton, Britney Spears 24/7 will take huge hits in ratings as people grow tired of this type of news. (Not sure if this will happen but it's more wishful thinking)
- Yahoo! will tank and continue to lose ground to Google and others. Mass layoffs will take place and the stock will tank.
1. Charlie Weis will be fired after another humiliating season, one year too late, but the Irish will start a new winning streak over the Midshipmen that will last longer than the old one.
2. The Presidential election will have the highest turnout in recent memory. Illinois' third Senator will win 26 states and 335 electoral votes in an electoral landslide. Hoping to keep her in check, voters will give Republicans 213 House seats, short of a majority but an improvement. Democrats will net three Senate seats.
3. President Bush will not invade any more countries, but President-elect Clinton will speak about the need to keep the military option on the table for other enemies.
4. A full-scale, national civil war will break out in Pakistan and President Musharraf will not have any control over the country. At some point, there will be uncertainty as to the whereabouts and control of some of the country's nuclear weapons.
5. The surge in Iraq will continue to result in fewer terrorist attacks, but the Iraqi government will make no significant progress.
6. Although no terrorist attacks will take place on US soil, at least one American ally will suffer a terrorist attack on the scale of the London subway bombings.
7. The United States will not boycott the Beijing Games, which will be riddled with drug scandals.
8. John Paul Stevens leaves the Court one way or another. Democrats manage to maintain the vacancy until President Clinton enters office with a stronger Democrat majority.
The US invades Djibouti, finds Osama, and peace comes to Iraq in October, leading to a landslide victory for McCain in 2008.
Cindy Shehan wins election over Nancy Pelosi, shames San Francisco and we never hear from Bay Area liberals again.
Three Judges retire from the Supreme Court by June but the Democrats block all nominations and the first Monday in October is delayed to 2009 when right of eminent domain is repealed for private ventures.
War breaks out between India and Pakistan leading to St. Thomas, VI, becoming the world leader in customer support and medical transcriptions.
I open a customer support company in the Caribbean where all calls are answered by very mellow support people laying on the beach drinking beer. Everyone speaks English with a slight slur. I refuse to ever retire.
Nice one.
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
" Got to love the Lord for making things like that."
Morally Compromised
The republican's nominee will be either Rudy or McCain.
The democrat's nominee will be Hillary
McCain beats Hillary, or Hillary beats Rudy
Pakistan stablizies, moves closer to democracy, but the closer it moves to democratic rule, the more the terrorists resist through violent acts.
The housing market rebounds moderately as the market finishes correcting the over-inflated price of housing, and the willingness of mortgage companies to give large loans to people who shouldn't have them (chicken-egg).
Iraq and Syria begin to develop closer ties, at the expense of Iran.
China begins to feel the effect of consumers revolting on thier tainted products.
American MFG rebounds somewhat as the costs of moving MFG overseas exceeds keeping it local due to relatively inexpensive (stateside) asian labor, and due to companies wanting more control over product quality.
The biggest technology advances will be in the medical device arena.
I make little or no progress on remodeling my house (sigh).
Just wanted to note that its funny most of you think Osama will be found, as opposed to his grave.

Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics all win their respective championships, making it the single most successful year for a city in decades.
Romney & Clinton win their respective nominations; Romney wins the presidency.
Clinton drags down Democrats in congressional races, helping the GOP pick up 8-12 House seats, and hold their Senate losses to 3 seats.
Matt Blunt wins re-election against trial lawyer Jay Nixon.
The Missouri Tigers win convincingly in the Cotton Bowl - 42-24.
Ohio St. defeats LSU 38-35; USC blows out Illinois 41-14; Oklahoma defeats West Va. 35-21; Hawaii stuns Georgia 38-31.
The St. Louis Cardinals finish third in the NL Central in a rebuilding year.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”