Centerfield

I predict that after the january elections in Iraq, the neocons cast the results as a qualified success and the ABBs cast them as more proof that our wrongheaded efforts are futile.

I expect these partisan responses to occur regardless of the details of events as they actually unfold. No matter what happens, the neocons will be more committed to staying the course, and the ABBs more committed to changing it.

The rest of us will just be left hoping for the best.

I predict that Kofi Annan will leave office and Colin Powell will be selected as U.N. Secretary-General.

After a disastrous 63-99 season, the Seattle Mariners win the NL West title or AL wild card.

Ooops...thought I was on a sports board.

:)

AL West

John Kerry accepts the nomination for Secretary of State; his first assignment: go to the UN to get that support he was sure he could get during the campaign.

Howard Dean, in pursuit of those guys who listen to country music and have a confederate flag on their truck declares himself for the 2008 election as a "Dixiecrat".

In a "People" interview John McCain admits he had his fingers crossed during the entire campaign. Furthermore, he denies he's ever considered having john Kerry as his future running mate.

George Tenet, in his memoir reveals the ultra-covert CIA operation that secreted out all of the WMD's from Iraq prior to the beginning of hostilities "to protect our troops". He admits the operation was a failure because the few dummy weapons to be left behind and to be found after victory were left at Al Qaqaa.

That's enough for now ;-)

I predict that all of the predictions on this thread will turn out to be wrong (unfortunately, except bk's).

Accepting Todd's post as seconding bk's post. I would like to third bk's predictions... also unfortunately.

Oh c'mon, the A's starting staff is heavily depleted, the Rangers still have no pitching, and Anaheim is no better than a 90 win team. I don't live in Seattle and am not a Mariners fan, just a baseball fan/forecaster.

We will see a reality show where the audience is the butt of the joke, not one of the contestants. Imagine a show where one of the contestants is "killed" during a stunt. We'll be talking about it for months!

The Mariners? Are you kidding me? They just overpaid for a couple of questionable guys. Richie Sexson has had big injuries and he's a real free swinger. Playing half his games at Safeco he's much more likely to get 200 K's than 40 homers. Beltre has had one good season.

The A's dropped back by trading Hudson and Mulder (smartly, to NL teams), so I pen the Angels in to win the AL West, no one else is in their spending league, plus their new SS is rabbit-foot flavor-flav, Orlando Cabrera. That leaves the Mariners trying to beat out the Red Sox or the Yankees for the wild card. There's no way. The Yankess should win at least 105 games, and Red Sox at least 95. If Wade Miller turns out healthy for Boston, they could give Yankees a run for the division.

We can debate Sexson's value. Whether he was overpaid is irrelevant (he was), he's a good bat with only one season of injuries in his career.

Adrian Beltre is a current and future superstar. Some guys never even make to the majors until they're 25; he'd been in the bigs 6 seasons before last season. He's always had 2004 kind of talent in him, it was just a matter of time from him. I predict at least 1 MVP from him during the life of his contract. Btw I'm not even a Mariners fan. They have the makings of an extremely solid and underrated team this year.

Pineiro will come back strong, Meche really showed signs of his incredible talent in the 2nd half, Franklin and Moyer will eat up innings and not suck as bad they did last year, one of the rookie starters will step it up to fill out the rotation, and the bullpen will be among the league's best. I see them having a better chance to win the West outright than outdoing the Sox or Yanks--the Angels have more holes than people think.