Back in mid-January, I boldly made some predictions and proved I can talk out of my butt. Even so, a stopped wall clock is right at least twice a day and I wasn’t too far off on some of the below:

The Patriots will win the Super Bowl and Tom Brady will be anointed by the Boston archdiocese (kind of joking).
Close but no cigar, though rumor has it Tom proposed to Gisele this week and gave her a rock the size of Rhode Island. Close enough to sainthood.

The Cubs will not win the World Series despite putting up a good battle. The Red Sox will still be scary good but watch out for the Angels.
All of these teams made the postseason, but the Cubs barely put up a fight, the Halos were bounced in the first round, and the Sox fought to the bitter end but were shut down by the Rays (who??? wth???).

NASCAR will deal with a performance enhancing drug scandal after years of flying under the radar.
Way wrong. Unless Coors is a performance enhancing drug, there may not be a PED problem in NASCAR.

Basketball and hockey ratings will continue to sink. Nobody will care.
I still don’t care.

The 2008 Olympics in China will go off without a hitch (aside from the usual drug and cheating scandals).
When I wrote this, I meant there would be no terrorism incidents. Prior to the games, some people were arrested for plotting but nothing happened during the events.

Reality sets in for Barry Bonds as he watches Marion Jones report for prison. He instructs his legal team to plea bargain a similar six-month deal which he begins serving after a stint with the A’s (sorry).
Nope and nope. However, Barry didn’t get paid to swing a bat in 2008 and his trial starts in March 2009. He and his agent said during the year that MLB owners conspired against offering him a contract. Baloney. Nobody wants The Barry Cancer in their clubhouse.

The writer’s strike will settle in time for the Oscars.
That was a easy one.

Movie box office receipts will not bounce back because folks are getting tired of lame sequel after lame sequel.
Another easy one though The Dark Knight was the second best movie of the year (Wall-E).

The reality show craze will continue to sustain network television and Katie Couric will be shown the door.
I don’t care about either but Katie still has a job.

Britney Spears and OJ Simpson will not go away (sigh).
Rumor has it Britney staged a comeback and OJ was put away (thank you, karma).

The Republican push to the White House will splinter due to too many candidates staying in the race for too long, and the formidable Christian bloc of voters will become fragmented over whom to support. The last man standing will be a compromise candidate that pleases nobody but is borderline-tolerable by the moderate GOP voter.
Kind of the opposite happened. John McCain sewed up the GOP nomination early but tried to become a Compromising Man of the People instead sticking to doing what he does best: Being John McCain. My feeling is he lost votes for straddling the middle like that.

Despite the Iowa scare, Hillary will lock up the Democratic nomination sooner than anyone expects and she will ask New Mexico governor Bill Richardson to be her running mate. Obama ultimately concedes in exchange for significant power in the Senate. His day will come down the road.
So wrong in so many ways. It almost went down to the wire until Hillary went bankrupt. Bill Richardson will be the next Secretary of Commerce. And whatever happened to that Obama guy?

Speaking of which, the Democrats will gain a firmer hold on both houses in November and, fair or not, will shoulder much of the blame for the economy.
Got part of that one, though I think historians will blame the economic crash on the GOP Wall Street policies of “let them do what they want because we trust them to behave”.

The President will spend most of 2008 on the road trying to cement his legacy as a peacemaker in the Middle East and will show only token support for the GOP candidate.
He tried his best before giving up (Israel is in a lather again as this is being written) and he barely showed his face during the election.

The big three stories will continue to be the wars, the presidential election, and the economy. Of these, it’ll be the economy that impacts the most Americans with the fallout from the housing crunch spreading to other aspects of their personal finances.
Nailed that one.

The banks that invested heavily in sub-prime mortgages will stay afloat by raising credit card interest rates. This will backfire on them as credit card default rates and the number of subsequent bankruptcy declarations will go through the roof.
This all went down but I didn’t predict the gazillion-dollar-bailout. Doesn’t seem to have had much of an affect, either.

The Fed will try to counter by cutting interest rates yet again, but it’ll be too little, too late as the “hidden recession” finally comes out of the closet.
Nailed that one, too.

Massive layoffs will become practically a fad with Big Business as they find new ways to move jobs overseas. The unions will stamp their feet and hold their breath but ultimately will have no control over the changes.
They’ve been layoffs because companies are just plain going out of business. And when the Detroit auto unions concede concessions like they did, you know we’re in a depression.

Gas prices will set new records as the cost of a barrel of gas finds a permanent home above the $100 mark.
We did set new highs that came down almost immediately after barrel prices nosedived. It looks like they’re creeping up again.

Wars: Pretty much nothing changes in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The White House will make noises about reducing troop levels in the summer and even makes some symbolic gestures, but some military units will make news by going on their fourth and fifth deployments since the invasions.
It seems the Nevada National Guard units keep going back.

IT: The story gaining traction will be the slowdown of the Internet, brought about by the rising use of video (which directly or indirectly continues the decline of movies and television). Previously free-use sites like YouTube will come under fire and Congress will get involved, possibly by laying the groundwork for a “internet regulatory” agency of sort.
Not yet but this will happen in time.

Science: In all of the doom and gloom, it’ll be science that sparks the brightest news in 2008 with significant discoveries in medicine and outer space.
NASA finds water on Mars which is very cool. Business as usual in medicine.