William Safire passed away this year and with him the hope for another slew of his year-end prognostications. As an insider’s insider he would frequently predict Israeli-Arab detente, Henry Kissinger’s return to the State Department and Richard Nixon’s final vindication. Of course, since much of his insider’s knowledge came straight from Nixon and Kissinger it wasn’t too hard to predict Safire’s success rate. (About the same as Nixon’s second term.)
Into this vacuum someone needs to step. Someone who is a complete outsider, who cannot help but see the future as distorted by an optimistic heart. That’d be me. So here’s what I see, clear as daylight, for the first year of this new decade.
The Supreme Court: Justice Antonin Scalia is showing signs of serious judicial burnout — ever more sarcastic and intemperate. He’s not enjoying the court and the prospect of having to outlast Obama’s second term, which will end in January of 2017 when Antonin will be 81, grates on him. He’ll be thinking of resigning all this summer, and when the court returns in the fall, he’ll announce. Two weeks later, Justice Clarence Thomas will also resign and the two will make public their plans for a joint memoir and tour via Thomas’s motor home, both to be named, “None of your damn business.”
The Senate: Talk of changing the filibuster rules will soon be forgotten and the Senate will settle into an angry mood. The Republicans will slowly come to understand that their solid opposition to health care reform has only enriched their legacy of opposition to Social Security, Civil Rights, and Medicare, each of which has required an entire generation to forget the Republican role. Predictions of Republican victories in the fall will be additionally undercut by the Tea Baggers’ continued purge of the moderates. The opportunity for comedy will continue unabated as new mirthmakers join Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and the ever-sidesplitting Mitch McConnell. They don’t call him the Senate Wit for nothing.
The House of Representatives: The fall elections will have only a mild impact in the House, due to the effect of the Tea Baggers driving Republican candidates to the extreme right, and the Democrats eventually learning how to explain the success of health care reform. The Democrats will lose less than ten seats, some of which will be switcheroos of Blue Dogs coming out of the political closet as Republicans. Nancy Pelosi will finally learn to smile as if it doesn’t hurt.
The War in Afghanistan: Two things need to happen or the war is toast: First, the Pakistani leadership and the Pakistani people need to start loving us or the Taliban will continue to have a safe haven there, so dangerously near their Dr. Atomic Kahn. A new George Kennan-like containment policy will arise because that is the best we can hope for.
Afghan War Part II: Karzai needs to go. Since he can be bought out of his presidency, somewhere around March he’s going to be feeling the urge to retire to San Francisco, where he’ll join his family developing of a new chain of restaurants which may or may not be fronts for drug laundering. If the name of the chain turns out to be “Poppy’s,” consider it a clue.
The Commentariat of the New York Times: Gail Collins and Maureen Dowd will write frequently annoying and inane columns that will have intelligent women everywhere complaining that they could do better. Those intelligent women will be correct.
Tom Friedman will realize that he’s losing his success rate to the average stopped clock and retire to focus on writing non-political travel books. They will be very short. But somehow still turgid.
Paul Krugman will remain correct, but regretfully so, almost all the time. He will learn rigorous new writing discipline, and use the interjection, “But wait” only every other column.
Frank Rich will maintain his weekly backwards gaze, reviewing the political theatre of What Just Happened. He will not look forward, since you can’t review something that hasn’t yet taken place.
Ross Douthat, the latest and most confusing of the Time’s attempts to find a conservative voice who can speak without generating those annoying little flecks of foam that form at the corners of the mouth, will resign from the paper and begin his studies for the priesthood by joining Opus Dei.
Bob Herbert and Nick Kristof will regularly make us feel angry, guilty and bad. Thanks I guess.
David Brooks will continue his complex and highly public metamorphosis from an acolyte of William F. Buckley, Jr, into some new kind of political exotic that will combine a basic and caring liberal decency tempered by skepticism of big government in general and disoriented by an irrational fear of transitory deficits. A single lunch with Paul Krugman should be helpful, in which case the transition from genuine conservative to genuine liberal will be complete.
And those folks over at the White House? The President and his team will refine their new kind of executive branch: policy over politics, deep cool, and long-term thinking. Those in the chattering classes who can only understand what’s going on by noticing what moved in the previous 24 hour news cycle will persist in missing the unfolding tectonics of the new era.
What do you see? I can’t wait to hear what you think will (or ought) to happen in the coming year.
Copyright © 2013 Endleofon All rights reserved
I REALLY liked your post and blog! It took me a tiny bit to find your site…but I book marked it. Would you mind if I threw up a link back to your page? Thanks!I enjoyed reading your blog!
Thank you. Really educational entry.
Hi there! I discovered your page on yahoo. I’m just in the process of starting a blog and wondered how you found the blogengine to install.Anyway, great blog and ill def be visiting again! cheers
Great posting. I appreciate you for posting that. I hope you can accept my apology for my poor English writing, I am from Pakistan and English is kind of new to me.
Your posts always show me that you really have some indepth knowledge about this. Quite a valuable read i must say.
Very good post. Thanks for sharing.
Love this post! Thanks for this. I’ll be sure to come back again. P.S: I’ve bookmark your site as well.
I’ve been a fan of Apple for sometime, they produce gadgets that is aesthetically beautiful while working like a each and every time. That can’t be said about alot of companies, it’s typically one or the other. Businesses don’t usually take aesthetics seriously like Apple. With that said I’ve got to say that I’m very excited about the new Tablet. One thing I question though, is it too soon? I think that this may be ahead of its time. What do you think?
I think Apple has so much credibility at the moment that whatever they announce tomorrow will shape the future of reading. Publishers are eager for Apple to provide the Answer, even if no is sure what the Question is. Conde Nast and Time Inc, and many book publishers are already refining content to make the most of whatever Apple will be announcing.
Good read, thanks. Always looking out for weird and wonderful stuff to read :)
Saw your blog bookmarked on Digg.I love your site and marketing strategy. Check out my website if you get a chance, just click on name. My Comedy Lessons Blog – http://learncomedyroutines.blogspot.com/
I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles. You obviously know what you are talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I’ve bookmarked it in my favourites :-D
I am glad that I came across your site on Bing. I really enjoyed your post. If you are interested in exchanging links with each other’s sites, let me know. I’d love to get on each other’s blogrolls. Here is my site: How To MIG Weld.
I love your blog and have been a lurker for a while now. Keep up the good content.
I regularly don’t leave comments!!! Believe me! However I enjoyed your blog site…especially this post! I have a Political Humor site
Nice to see that there are blog owners that care about their blogs and not post all kind of useless stuff but rather try to keep it clean and valuable for the sake of their subscribers. You’ve done a great job and i thank you for that and also for not traumatizing me with useless garbage and spam.You know, if you look for new ways to promote and improve you blog, i’ve open myself a corner of cyberspace and i would like to share it with you and your visitors, because it’s a good chance for anyone to learn how they can promote their websites and any online business if they have any for free or very low costs.I’m still getting it done and working on it as we speak, so it’s not as i wish but it’s a work in progress that already has value to it. If you care and wann help maybe you will link to it and why not let your friends know. It will get crazy this month cause i will give away alot of goodies.Visit:
I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles. You obviously know what you are talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I’ve bookmarked it in my favourites :-D
Good post! I looked around for this… I stumbled upon your site! :) I have a Political Satire site of my own at White Rabbit Cult… Anyway would you mind if I threw up a return link from my blog site to your web site?
Very good blog post I enjoy your blog carry on the amazing posts
Hi just thought i would tell you something.. This is twice now i’ve landed on your blog in the last 3 days looking for totally unrelated things. Spooky or what?
Very nice blog post I love your site keep up the good articles
OBAMA HAS NOT QUIT. OUR WORK IS NOT FINISHED.
I’ll return again, and I’m also takin to your feed, thanks.
I have been a reader for a long while, but am a first time commenter. I just wanted to say that this has been / is my favorite update of yours! Keep up the good work and I’ll keep on coming back.
Blog looks great! Always looking for motivating blogs to keep mine going!
I do not think the administration knows how to address the budget deficit problem in the long term. And no one should expect that there would be a genius somewhere who can gaze in a crystal ball and produce an answer. Obama is trying to get the best answer by having people of both sides come and enrich the discussion so that the conclusions are well thought out. Let’s wait for the recommendations before announcing a verdict on whether the commission produces nothing. Saying it will not from the beginning is getting defeated before even starting. Also the demand that spending cuts should be done before any commission is formed is strange. The question of how to keep budget deficits controlled in the long run is different than what to do immediately. After a credit crises of the magnitude seen, it would be foolish to cut to balance the budget when the entire economy is on the precipice. So the short term answer is to get the economy on its feet. The long term answer has to be something other than continue spending at this rate. And hence the commission to determine how to get off the spending drug in the long term.
Pretty cool post – raises some interesting points for debate. I just stumbled upon your blog this morning and wanted to say that I have really liked browsing some of the posts.
Awesome post! It was very inspirational, so I appreciate your hard work! I will make sure to share this with a few good friends who I know would like it.
Hey I found your site by luck on feedburner while looking for something totally unrelated but I am truly happy that I did, You have just earned yourself another subscriber. :)
Very good blog post I love your site keep up the great posts
I heard about this “iPad-killer” people were talking about. It’s like an iPad, but it’s got ports for a camera and other USB devices, it supports Flash so you can play all those cool internet games, and it multitasks for cheaper. It’s called a netbook. And it’s ALREADY ON SHELVES. I swear, “Shiny New Thing” Syndrome is going to kill America
Very interesting! I totally missed this. Good looking blog by the way! Have a good day!
The problem with this country is BOTH the Democrats and Republicans. Anyone who seriously thinks that one side isn’t corrupt or slaves to Corporate America hasn’t done an adequate job of paying attention. To the Republicans: The GW administration will go down in History as one of the worst administrations. They eroded your constitutional rights, expanded the power of the wealthy elite, invaded countries under false pretenses, destroyed diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, and spent money like it was going out of style. To the Democrats: Obama is a dud. He promised much and has turned out to be another corporate lackey. He made deals with big pharma to ensure you could not get your medication cheaper elsewhere, he flip flopped on military tribunals, he refuses to fix health care properly through nationalization or single payer, he populates his inner circle with more Wall Street insiders, he spends money on bailouts and useless stimulus packages.
This country is far from beaten. What the brit hasn’t seen is the sleeping anger that american citizens build just before they put their boots on and go to kicking. Our government has foolishly tested those lines this time and it won’t be forgotten.
Your blog is so informative … keep up the good work!!!!
How often do you write your blogs? I enjoy them a lot 4 7 4
I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked your web site to check out the latest stuff you post.
I wanted to thank you for this great I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked your web site to look at the latest stuff you post.
The post is a good one. Anyone’s audience is a group of individuals. Nothing can change it.
Nice article written here. I got to know a few more things about the topic
Nice Site.
Just can’t wait to read your next post
I wish more people would write blogs like this that are actually fun to read. With all the fluff floating around on the web, it is refreshing to read a blog like yours instead.
I found lots of interesting information here. The post was professionally written and I feel like the author has extensive knowledge in the subject – Thank yuou!!!
Cheers very much, I have found this info extremely nice!