2008: Reflections, 1

by folkbum

Last January 2, I made a bunch of predictions. How'd I do? Remarkably well. In particular, I very proud of #10. My predictions, with commentary in bold.

1. An embarrassing number of these predictions will be wrong. Nine out of 29 (not counting this one) were wrong, so I would say RIGHT!
   
2. Some conservative Cheddarspherean will misconstrue a cold snap as evidence that global climate change is imaginary, which will really just provide evidence of his or her scientific illiteracy. Here's one from recently. RIGHT!
   
3. A Milwaukee-based conservative talk show host will say something worthy of a suspension--or dismissal--even in the eyes of many conservative fans. He will probably not suffer any consequences. Mark Belling has been a bad boy. His publisher had to make a significant retraction. RIGHT!
   
4. One or more anonymous Wisconsin bloggers will un-anonymize themselves. Meet Tom Foley. RIGHT!
   
5. One or more conservative Wisconsin bloggers will claim that Democrats stole one or more elections. Here's a current post doing exactly that. RIGHT!
   
6. That particular widely-linked and widely-read conservative blogger that shall remain nameless (but Patrick McIlheran thinks he's interesting!) will continue to write posts that are racist, sexist, anti-muslim, or all three at once, and the right will keep reading him and thinking he's interesting. A lefty will slip up once and call somebody a name and suddenly the same righties will turn into the propriety police, citing that as an example of "the hate left." I know--deja vu. Boy, was I right on this one--kind of. This time, many on the right actually took what he wrote to be too far over the line. But he blew up his old blog(s) and is now blogging away again from a well-linked new home. I don't recall any left slip-ups, though. Still, point in may favor--RIGHT!
   
7. The Iron Man movie will be universally panned. I based this on the trends. I was WRONG. I am anxious to see what they did to Watchmen, though.
   
8. The Wigderson-Boots and Sabers feud will finally boil over. I don't know what will happen, but rest assured, Wiggy will be smirking when he types the tale. Here, for example, James blames Owen for every Wisconsin traffic fatality that will happen this year. RIGHT!
   
9. Dennis Troha won't have Jim Doyle's smoking gun. RIGHT!
   
10. Everyone will have a good laugh at how stupid some beauty queen is. I just didn't expect it would be the Republican vice presidential candidate. Wow. RIGHT!
    
11. Ben & Jerry's will once again decline to name an ice cream flavor in honor of me. (And we all know "folkbum's bananas and nuts" would have been a hit.) Sadly, RIGHT!
    
12. Party control of both houses of the legislature, both federally and in Wisconsin, will not change. WRONG, as I noted here I underestimated the Democratic wave here in Wisconsin.
    
13. The Democrat will be elected president in November. Happily, RIGHT!
    
14. Google will buy something else big and unexpected. Perhaps a small country. Hasn't been a great year for Google, what with Chrome tanking and all. WRONG.
    
15. Steve Kagen will be re-elected, causing Kevin Binversie to nearly stroke out. RIGHT! on Kagen. Haven't seen Binversie around lately, so maybe ...
    
16. Louis Butler will also be re-elected. Or, rather, elected, as he was appointed. WRONG. Biggest disappointment of the year.
    
17. I will continue not to give a rip about any Wisconsin sports teams. RIGHT!
    
18. George W. Bush will pardon fewer people than you expect, mostly because he's done such a good job obstructing prosecutions that not many people have been convicted. However, most of this list will get pardons in their Christmas stockings. The pardons haven't really started yet. WRONG.
    
19. Eventually, every lefty blogger in Wisconsin will work for me. I still have time on this.
    
20. I will continue not to be invited as a panelist on "Sunday Insight." RIGHT! And Sunday mornings are poorer for this.
    
21. Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee, Jr., will be convicted on most if not all state and federal charges. RIGHT!
    
22. Tom Barrett will be re-elected--by a lot. RIGHT!
    
23. Once again I will find myself too busy working this summer to respond to complaints about how I get my summers off. RIGHT!
    
24. By the end of the year, we will still have very serious people telling us that "the next three months" in Iraq will prove to be the most critical. I haven't seen any of that lately, although Joe McGraham have just reassured us that 2009 is the pivotal year. WRONG.
    
25. I will be able to eat solid food again. (So far in 2008, it's been iffy. Ugh.) RIGHT!
    
26. Ryan Adams will put out three or four more records this year. It was just one. He's slowed down since he got clean. WRONG.
    
27. The person I hope will win "Top Chef" won't. They never do. I'm like the kiss of death. Stephanie won! Glad to see her win, sad to be WRONG.
    
28. The WGA writer's strike will eventually end, but only after people remember how stupid "American Gladiators" is. RIGHT!
    
29. "The Simpsons" will continue to suck nowadays. RIGHT!
    
30. The United States will win more gold medals than any other country at the Olympics this summer. WRONG. China won more gold, but we won more medals overall.