9 predictions

First off - Congrats to the Trojans! The need for a playoff in college football is once again achingly clear. The system now encourages scheduling weak opponents, running up scores, and flattens the season - removing the crescendo of end of season rivalries.

BCS proponents call this "Making every game matter!" Well, every game shouldn't "matter". Real fans know that Ohio State- Michigan matters more than Ohio State - Youngstown....regardless of the year. Winning the conference should matter more than some off game in late august a talented team choked in. The BCS is slowly flattening college football, all for the sake of gaylord hotel papa mama mia pizza motor credit union emerald nut bowl system.

The BCS punishes team improvement.

USC deserves a real shot at the title.

16 teams. 4 weeks in December. Holiday football madness!




My predictions for 2009. I hope fervently I am wrong on numbers 2 and 5.

1. Obama will remain popular through June. Meaning he will stay above 50% in polls. By the Fall he will be wearing thin. Perceptions of him will change from "refreshing" to "arrogant" for the general population as it becomes clear his power to fix the economy is limited.

2. The economy will limp and fade, limp some more and fade further. Official unemployment numbers will go into double digits this year.

3. The war in Afghanistan will be expanded by Obama, causing heads to explode on the Obama Left.

4. Obama blogs will continue cheer leading - but their audiences will drop off as it becomes inescapable to avoid that the most delusional were duped.

5. There will be a terror attack on American soil.

6. The inflation/deflation argument is beyond my pay grade. I have no idea which will present itself with force. But one will. I am leaning toward inflation now.

7. The media's infatuation with Obama will fade sharply over the course of the next 3 months. The snide cabal of columnists at the NYTs will kick things off. His admin. won't be open in any real sense. Just more open than W's - which isn't saying much. Though the media has been mindlessly in love with Obama, he has never returned the sentiment. This is already dawning on the MSM. As BHO's defensiveness and annoyance becomes more evident - they'll turn. Proviso: If the GOP continues to produce a series of fools and clowns as it did in 07 and some of 08 it will buy Obama more media cuddle time.

8. Hillary Clinton will find the world left by W and Rice nearly impossible to deal with. But she'll perform her duties well. The media will do its damnedest to pick her apart.

9. The Gay Rights movement will finally grow up and move into its nonviolent civil disobedience phase.