Predictions for 2008
Lots of bloggers are doing an annual “Predictions” piece. I’ll show a few of them in a bit, but here are five of my best guesses for 2008.
- Voter turnout will be much lower than the past two elections, due to the extraordinary length of the campaign.
- The east coast will see a fire season like the west has had for the past few years.
- There will be a terrorist attack in the continental U.S. by a foreign terror group like Hamas.
- Deaths from non-hostile causes in Iraq will exceed deaths due to combat in at least four months of 2008.
- Internet access for millions will be interrupted in the United States due to actions taken in China.
Bill Quick at the Daily Pundit:
A major disease will be conquered in 2008. My money is on diabetes, but it could just as easily be something else.
NRO
Osama bin Laden will be killed. Some famous moron will proclaim that Bush “saved” Bin Laden’s death until the end to boost his “legacy.”
Whatever happens in the presidential race, by November we will all laugh at the memory that anything (or one) was ever considered “inevitable.”
Volokh Conspiracy
Ron Paul does better than expected, and is one of the last three candidates left in the race. He then runs a third party campaign, drawing enough support from McCain, especially in the Mountain States, to throw the race to the Democratic nominee.
Stop the ACLU
If Ron Paul and Michael Bloomberg run as independents… the Dems still win because Paul will siphon off more GOP voters than Bloomberg will siphon from the Dems. But if Paul stays out and Bloomberg runs, his entrance just might cut in favor of the GOP candidate.
Glittering Eye
China’s Olympics will be huge, opulent, and have precisely the opposite effect that, presumably, the Chinese government wants to achieve. Rather than showing that China has made it, it will highlight the enormous contrasts in modern China. Citizen journalism may play a part.
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What were your predictions for 2007 ?
I agree with most everything you write (I’m libertarian and originally from the MilleLacs area), with the exception of your one-sided view of China. I work there frequently and have a positive view and am optimistic for the future. Sure, you can find lots of faults, and certainly there are old hard-liners who are anti-US and opposed to an open society. And when you go there, you can’t help but wonder about the future and their appetite for resources.
But if they continue to develop in the next 20 years the way that they have in the past 20, we have nothing to worry about.
Even now, in contrast to the Arab/Muslim world, the folks in China clearly aspire to the modern world. In that sense, they are on our side. Wait until the Arabs figure out about the skyrocketing prosperity in China. They’ll be shocked to learn that there are no barriers to their own development other than what they’ve placed on themselves.
So I urge you to take a more open-minded look.