Saturday, December 29, 2007

Predictions for 2008

As we're within days of a new year, I thought I'd give a few predictions of what we're about to see. I should mention that I'm not a professional prognosticator (or a professional anything, for that matter), so please, no wagering. Not to mention, if I'm right you can marvel at my precognitive skills, and if I'm wrong you can mock me. It's a win-win for everybody!

So, without further ado, here's what I think will happen in 2008.

- Republicans retain the White House and retake the Senate. Democrats retain control of the House due to the sheer number of seats the GOP has to keep and obtain. But the Senate is attainable, thanks in no small part to voter dissatisfaction with Democrat leadership in both houses of Congress.

- President George W. Bush will serve out the remainder of his term, not without controversy, but without a serious impeachment threat. Some will chalk it up to the length of time Bush has been in office, others will chalk it up to Democrat inaction, and others will chalk it up to there being a lack of impeachable offenses.

- Cindy Sheehan will fail in her bid to unseat Nancy Pelosi, but will pull enough votes away from her to make the race competitive. This will further empower the Sheehan Wing of the Democrat Party, further dividing the Democrats.

- Agents Compean and Ramos will be pardoned, if not in 2008, then by no later than the middle of 2009.

- An anti-war movie will win a Best Picture Oscar. And nobody will care.

- Hollywood's box office slump will continue with a summer movie season filled with some big ticket films flopping badly.

- The price of oil will go above $100 a barrel briefly, and then stay in the $90-$100 range.

- President Bush will use his veto power more frequently in his last year in office, which will further cement the notion that Congress is a "do-nothing Congress."

- Due to a combination of talk of the "housing bubble" and the rate of foreclosures, the housing market's lean times will continue. But the hidden truth is that the housing market will continue to make gains, albeit at lower-than-expected levels.

- The surge in Iraq will continue to get positive results, which will get no coverage in the press.

- John Murtha's legal woes will continue and he will have to face the slander charges against him in relation to comments he made about Marines in Haditha. It will hurt him in his reelection bid, but it will not be enough to unseat him.

- The media will try to turn the 2008 election into a referrendum on the Bush Presidency, but it will not be. It will be a referrendum on whether the public trusts Democrats to run the country.

And finally...

- I will finally finish my first book. Whether it gets published...that's a different story. :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have a whole lot better chance of being right than the local weatherman! LOL Good work! By the way, I can't wait to read that book. I know it'll be great!

Anonymous said...

TAL AFAR - Police killed five insurgents and detained five others in a clash in the town of Tal Afar, about 420 km (360 miles) northwest of Baghdad, the town's police chief Ibrahim al-Jubouri told Reuters.

MOSUL - Nineveh police spokesman, Brigadier-General Saeed Ahmed, was wounded when gunmen opened fire at them as he was conducting a television interview outdoors in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. One of his bodyguards was killed and a second was wounded in the attack.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of three people were found in different areas of Baghdad on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar round killed one person and wounded another in eastern Baghdad's Mashtal neighborhood on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said its forces detained six suspected 'special groups criminal element members', a term it often uses to refer to rogue Mehdi Army militiamen with ties to Iran, in southern Iraq.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed three insurgents and detained 34 other suspects during operations targeting al Qaeda in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

SULAIMAN PEK - Gunmen killed one person and wounded two others when they shot at a civilian car on Friday in the town of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

HILLA - Police said they found the decomposed body of a man dumped in an orchard in the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

MOSUL - A car bomb wounded seven people on Friday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

NEAR KIRKUK - A roadside bomb wounded two people when it exploded in a village near the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - A child was killed and two wounded, including one soldier, by a roadside bomb near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Kirkuk on Friday, police said.

Stephen R. Maloney said...

I love Michael Moore -- NostraDumbass.

Since you don't like John Murtha -- and I doubt even Mrs. Murtha does -- I hope you'll visit Lt. Col. Bill Russell's site (he's running against Murtha) at www.williamrussellforcongress.com and offer whatever support you can. Also, if you'd like to join Bloggers 4 Russell, a large and growing group, please let me know via e-mail (TalkTop65@aol.com) or by leaving a comment on my site, which is mainly devoted these days to Russell-Murtha. It's at: http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com.

steve maloney
ambridge, pa