The offical 2009 Prediction Thread

[Scout26]

Okay, folks here's your chance to play Miss Cleo....

Make your prediction and place your bets:


Here's Mine:
1.  Obama will fold like a cheap suit in a crisis.
2.  Gunowners will get hosed.

[Bogie]

Gun owners will get blamed for something that terrorists do, which causes Obama to blather incoherently without a teleprompter. First president to use the F-word on national television.
 

[charby]

Oil will drop below $25 a barrel.

UAW will still try to get concessions in any big three bailouts.

R. Emmanual will step down as Whitehouse Chief of Staff.

Iowa will pass a new law to allow municipalities to tax people on their incomes.

Corn will drop to $2.25 a bushel.

[Azrael256]

1.  Whatever the sufficient cause is that makes Israel hit Iran materializes.  I don't think Israel pulls the trigger in 2009, but the catalyst appears.

2.  Obama and Hillary screw the pooch royally on #1.  The American Jewish population starts to get ticked off, but the real backlash will wait for Obama's poor response to Israel doing something big.

3.  India and Pakistan get into it again.  No nukes, but a real, if brief, war.  Kashmir pushes for independence in a big way.

4.  The Russian blustering deflates as currency problems return in a big way.  Medvedev gets a lot of the blame, and Vlad tries to get his job back.  I think he'll succeed.

5.  The American economy begins to adapt.  Things start to line up for some advancement, but continued regime uncertainty prevents any substantial regrowth.  Realizing this, Washington starts to take a stand here and there.  They're all wrong, but wrong is better than indecisive, and The Market starts to breathe.

6.  Obama has another new cabinet by October.

[PTK]

Things change. 

In all seriousness, not much original will happen. Another land war in Asia, another crappy leader, political stuff will go bad, the usual. About the only thing that would surprise me is a revolt in or attack on USA soil.

[Nitrogen]

1) Obama won't be as horrible as every conservative I know thinks, but he won't be as awesome as every liberal thinks.
 a) Congress refuses to push an AWB in fear for it's majority in the next 4 years.

2) Obama won't "change" much.

3) If the NRA doesn't grow up, it will fall further into irrelevancy, membership numbers dropping by 1/4 to 1/3 current numbers.

4) Illegal Aliens go back to Mexico as jobs evaporate

5) Were not as economically screwed as we think, but it still hurts for the next 4-6 years.  Real, skilled folks, and real workers continue to have jobs, while people propped up by too strong of a union (i.e. UAW workers), and other people that produce nothing in the economy end up poor and jobless


OK, number 5 is probably wishful thinking, but hey.

[PTK]

4) Illegal Aliens go back to Mexico as jobs evaporate

Already happening. 

[Monkeyleg]

...other people that produce nothing in the economy end up poor and jobless.

I'd be delighted if all members of congress became poor and jobless, but I'm not betting on it.

[GigaBuist]

4) Illegal Aliens go back to Mexico as jobs evaporate

5) Were not as economically screwed as we think, but it still hurts for the next 4-6 years.  Real, skilled folks, and real workers continue to have jobs, while people propped up by too strong of a union (i.e. UAW workers), and other people that produce nothing in the economy end up poor and jobless

OK, number 5 is probably wishful thinking, but hey.

It'd say #5 is quite likely and it'll result in #4 happening.  The market reacts quickly.  I've already seen businesses drop wages in response to the labor pool increasing.  If your job consists of showing up and doing something that doesn't require any education or real intelligence you're going to see a significant reduction in wages.  Michigan's blazing a trail on this one, outside of the auto industry.

[gunsmith]

 The Dear Leader has already angered the radlibs with his choice of this Warren
guy to give the invocation.
In order to pacify gays he gets rid of "don't ask/don't tell" and orders the military to love it or leave it. Moral plummets, people leave and he reinstates the draft in order to engage in wars with Pakistan/Afghanistan and to send our troops into U.N quagmires.
I predict increased capital punishment at the Fed level.
 More bailouts and other giveaways to corporations with taxpayer money.
As mentioned earlier the Dear Leader will start to curse at reporters asking any question he doesn't like.
The Dear Leader, angered by his inability to quit smoking attacks  other smokers with huge taxes.
Goes after other industries he doesn't like, coal, oil, defense all get screwed with as much as possible by the Dear Leaders admin.

The birth certificate gets released, it list him as a Muslim.
Another Monica Lewinsky type scandal except she dies right before it hits drudge and it becomes clear that MSM is in the tank for the Dear Leader and people turn to alt news like drudge.
Scandals and broken promises make him as hated GW is now.
Wealthy blacks realize their 2A rights have been stolen from them and join the NRA.
A ccw holder stops an attacker during a bloody terrorist Mumbai like attack and the Dear Leader babbles incoherently about duck hunting, embarrassing himself, he later makes it a federal crime to "be a vigilante" and is sooo hated that the Conservatives get elected for the rest of the Century.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Don't ask, don't tell revoked.
Russia tries to reassert itself further, may issue an ultimatum vis a vis other peeps invading Iran.
China has flooding and people die.
Media-inspired love affair with Obama continues. Smart/cynical cookies notice that most of his policies come from his cabinet - some members of which are nutjobs.
Power struggle of some kind twixt Hillary and Obama... after all, there is only one Lord of the Rings, and (s)he does not share power.
Michelle makes various stupid/radical remarks.
Lots of talk about the Fairness Doctrine, which won't be implemented that year.
Economy goes further south. The oracle of Obama throws money at the problem, hard and fast.
Possible uptick in foreign aid, probably AIDs in Africa for the most part.
Triple-C programs are set up... probably not until the end of the year.
Gun issue is muttered about, not really acted upon.
Pakistan does something stupid as hell. Loses a nuke, massacres a few hundred of its own people who are protesting, invades India...
Iran's fearless leader traipses around the globe, pissing people off withersoever he goeth.
Oh crap. North Korea didn't really stop making nukes. They want a bribe to stop their nuke production.
Gas prices rise, especially during the summer.
SCOTUS dodges any Heller-related cases.
The number of pictures of Barack Obama in all media surpass or equal the number of pictures of Hannah Montana.
Hollywood becomes deeply patriotic.

[Strings]

Can I have some of whatever Gunsmith is smoking?

[Kwelz]

Can I have some of whatever Gunsmith is smoking?

LOL  it does appear to be some interesting stuff doesn't it.

[Gewehr98]

Charter Communications will file for bankruptcy.

Somebody will buy what's left of their infrastructure and charge us even more for crappy broadband service.

[Bogie]

What's all this about don't ask/don't tell, and the massive change in the military? Sheesh, guys, we had gay folks in the Army in the eighties... We just didn't give a damn as long as they didn't play grabass in the showers...
 
In order for the administration to be viable on a hostile world stage, they're either going to cave completely (not an option...) or completely hack off the people who elected them.
 
Mexicans come back in the spring.

[gunsmith]

What's all this about don't ask/don't tell, and the massive change in the military? Sheesh, guys, we had gay folks in the Army in the eighties... We just didn't give a damn as long as they didn't play grabass in the showers...
 
In order for the administration to be viable on a hostile world stage, they're either going to cave completely (not an option...) or completely hack off the people who elected them.
 
Mexicans come back in the spring.

Heck, in the late seventies there was gays too.
Don't ask don't tell is a useful political tool for getting rid of people.
Women have been given a discharge after refusing to have sex with a guy.

B.O's admin has already started hacking off the folks who elected them.
I have been reminding SF residents that when he starts a ground war that they held signs saying all war is bad.

I love pretending to be a committed liberal..... bwa ha ha ha!

[HankB]

* Higher expenses for energy, as the "Global Warming" hysteria is used as an excuse to increase taxes and fees.  Expect it will include some form of "carbon tax" or a variation of the "Cap and trade" scam.

* "Community Service" for all high school and college students will be proposed, but won't pass in 2009.

* Serious consideration of a draft, for domestic "service" as well as the military.

* Questions will persist about Obama being a "Natural Born" citizen.

* Amnesty and benefits for illegal aliens. (The GOP will fold on this, since most of them support it, too.)

* Despite the economy, more US$ to UN-sponsored programs.

* US troops will become involved in a place where US interests are difficult to identify. (Central Africa? Balkans?)

* Obama (or his people) will openly meet with and overtly legitimize organizations like Hamas.

Plus unrest in the Middle East, hurricanes in the Southeast, and maybe even an earthquake in California.

[grampster]

People on APS will still be arguing about AGW.

The UAW becomes an afterthought.  Too many people out of work and willing to work for reduced wages/benefits for the union to be able to have any power.  There will be major concessions.  Housing begins to stabilize in late 2009 at prices about 35% below the highs of 2006-7.  In early 2009 deflation begins to effect just about everything, but not severe enough to cause major problems, and prices begin to stabilize toward the beginning of 2010.  Auto's begin selling again, but at prices about 25% lower than their peak in 2006-7.  Some manufacturing comes back to America based on the Brazil format where suppliers plants are attached to assembly plants.  Population continues to shift to where the jobs are. 

California declares bankruptcy and is annexed by China.  Nobody cares. 

Americans discover that the Democrat party left wing policies make things worse. More Red Dog Democrats begin to appear and push the party toward the right.  The R's continue to eat their young and move further to the left.  By 2012 an interesting coalition of conservative Dems and R's knock Obama out of the running for re-election and Bobby Jindal runs as a conservative Democrat.
He is elected in a landslide.

 

[El Tejon]

I predict Manewolf will rant about High Fructose Corn Syrup.

[Manedwolf]

Gun owners will get blamed for something that terrorists do, which causes Obama to blather incoherently without a teleprompter. First president to use the F-word on national television.

I would pay to watch that. Paging Ron Burgandy.

Oh, and the economy is going to suck once the New New Deal gets in the way of any recovery.

[Manedwolf]

Charter Communications will file for bankruptcy.

Somebody will buy what's left of their infrastructure and charge us even more for crappy broadband service.

That is what happened to Adelphia, which I had. Comcast bought them.

You know what I think of Comcast.

[Tallpine]

I predict that 2009 will be an odd year.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I predict that Obama will not be up to the task of administering the country, and that his loyal followers in the media and the electorate will do their best to conceal, confuse, or ignore that fact.

[wmenorr67]

The world ends.

[lee n. field]

The Dear Leader has already angered the radlibs with his choice of this Warren
guy to give the invocation.

Which is amusing.  A lot of people mistakenly lumped by the MSM into Rev. Rick Warren's camp don't like Warren.  This is a long term distaste (with "church as suburban mall" and all that that entails), not directly related to his burning incense to the genius of the 0ne.   (Hint: "Evangelical" is a term that doesn't have much of any definite referent anymore.)

The world ends.

"Fire next time."