'07 Predictions Redux

Back In December 06 I rashly made some predictions. Lets see how I did.

1. Defunding the war -
Well happily this one did not turn out like I predicted. Rather the president has gotten pretty much exactly what he asked for over the course of the year. More than anything was the fact that the Surge did work pretty much as planned and now most everybody is saying that we might just actually win in Iraq.

One of the funniest things about this issue was that after the 06 election results all we heard in the media was how” that election results were a “mandate” on the war. The incoming Congress was going to settle the President’s hash and listen to the electorate and similar rot”.

In fact, what the election truly indicated was that the Republican base decided to sit out the process in a fit of pique to protest that party’s elected representatives acting like Democrats! They were spending like proverbial sailors on a shore leave and the voters ( R ) were saying ENOUGH DAMMIT!. When Ms. Pelosi and Mr Reid took power they immediately showed us their true colors by kowtowing to the MoveOn types only to discover how isolated that position really was.

2. The Soldiers as "Victims" -
Back in March I commented that Thomas Sowell had a nice piece on this very phenomenon and over the course of the year we heard more and more of these types of comments. I attribute this to the fact that the media to a large part simply cannot see this war as anything other than “Vietnam in the desert”. While it still could prove to be a disaster (especially if the Democrats were to win in the next election and pull defeat from the jaws of victory or if the AQ types manage to pull off a Tet-like offensive in Iraq sometime in the next months, I doubt if we will see any sort of traction in portraying our troops as victims. The major difference this time appears to the internet and Talk-Radio. Troops have the ability to tell their own story thus breaking the major network’s monopoly on news.

3. Fighting in Afghanistan -.
The verdict still appears to be out on this one. Back in March I had commented that the press had referred to the Taliban as “resurgent” but since then it has been pretty dammed quiet there. What has changed is the eruption in Pakistan with Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

4."The war is lost" -
Well again, happily this one did not turn out like I predicted. All through the year we heard a chorus of “This war is LOST” from all sorts of people who should have known better. What was most disturbing was the disgraceful way the Democrat side of our elected officials handled General Petraeus’ testimony to Congress back in the Summer; Especially when he was bringing us good news! You would have thought that Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi wanted us to loose in Iraq by the way they (mis)handled his testimony.

5. The Draft being reinstated.
What I said in March still holds true. I missed this one by a mile. The draft is dead as long as our troops continue to perform as they have this year.

6. Impeachment -
Again what I said in March appears to be holding true. While a few of the far-left nutballs are calling for impeachment. The older, greyer hairs of the Democratic Party realize as Mr. Carville would put it, “ that dog just ain’t huntin!”

7. Green Laws -
Congress recently passed a bill that will supposedly make the incandescent light bulb illegal soon. At least that was the major talk about the bill across the internet. It is being touted as the next step in saving our planet but many are decrying this bill as nothing more than political gas-bagging. Sure the CAFÉ standards are being raised but past history has shown us that raising the CAFÉ only results in people driving MORE. There is money in there for Ethanol production but that is primarily a political sop to the farm states especially Iowa shortly before the Caucaus. Cynical am I? Sure, I feel that this entire Green issue is a political ploy to make a power grab of unbelievable proportions.

9. Gas at $3.00 -.
Sadly I was dead on with this one. Gas is currently selling at $3.05 per gallon about a mile from my house although it was as high as $3.30 earlier this summer and as low as $2.50 in the late summer/early fall The raising and lowering of gas prices has become a guessing game of mine. This website has become a favorite..(update) just to prove it, as soon as I posted this I went to the site and checked . WHAT DO YOU KNOW, YOU CAN GET GAS AT $2.89/gallon today! I have no idea anymore!

10. Recession -
Depending upon who you talk to on this one I am either dead on or so far out in left field that I might as well give up. With the mortgage bust of the past summer and the drop of the dollar, I am tending to believe that we will hear more and more about it being worse that we thought, especially if the Republican candidates start to show any traction in the primaries.

11. Mortgage rates heading up to 10??? -
No comment.

12. Immigration amnesty -
I have no idea where this one is going. On the one hand, conservative radio sank the “Comprehensive Immigration Bill” earlier this year but on the other there has been no more movement on ANY other Immigration bill either. The Republican candidates for ’08 are all saying “close the borders” but I doubt any of them would actually do anything other than talk if elected. All of the candidates; Democrat or Republican are simply too scared of the Hispanic vote to do much more than posture.

13. Conservative Republicans -
Fred is currently running in at best 3^rd place in most polls. Depending on whom you read the Republican nomination is up for grabs with no clear front runner ready to assume Ronald’s mantle.

14. The election -
As I said in March, watch the fun. Currently Hilary was acting like she was the party’s designated hitter only to discover that Obama and the Breck-girl had other ideas. In the end I think they will pretty much give in to her machine which will give the Republicans the most beatable candidate of the bunch. That being said I think it will still turn on some unknown issue that we have not seen yet.

The fun ones

1. MAN WAS I WRONG ON THIS ONE!!! Its still fun to say it!!!
COLTS 29
Bears 17
It is still fun to say “WORLD CHAMPIONS INDIANAPOLIS COLTS!” however to hear the sporting media talk, you would think that the Patriots are able to walk on water. Yeah, Yeah, they went 16-0 but I bet the final AFC representative in Phoenix won’t be flying out of Logan airport come February.

2. The Pacers haven't managed to eliminate themselves - YET!!!
No playoff appearance for the Blue-n-Gold, new team, new coach. BINGO!

3 &4. IU/Purdue split and actually was fun to watch. Both are in the dance along with Butler and Notre Dame. UPDATE:
Butler made a really sweet run in the tourney but all we heard around here was GREG ODOM!! (he’s a pretty nice kid apparently)

5. Major League Baseball.
We made one Indianapolis Indians game this year, it was fun but we should have gone more times.

6. Loosing weight
I have actually lost over 20 pounds since July!

7. Blogging
In retrospect I blogged about the same and about as seriously as before. The things that irked me in 06 still did so in 07.

8. 50th wedding anniversary party.
As I said, it was family only. Happy 50^th Mom& Dad!

9. Daughter.
I couldn’t say more. She IS the Princess Tiger

10. Wife.

l there are lots of things I could say about my Queen but all of them would embarrass her beyond belief. Suffice it to say that I would not trade the last 19 years for any amount of gold.

There you have it. Some I hit, some I missed. Not much different than anyone else. Have a Happy New Year and I will see you in ’08.