2010 Predictions: Politics and Foreign Affairs

Well it is time again to make some wild predictions about what will happen in 2010.

Politics:

1. The Democrats will be ushered out of office in large numbers but it will not be as bad as the Contract With America Rout in 1994. Harry Reid will lose in Nevada but Dodds will still stay on in Connecticut. Although ill-health will have him retire in the next few years and a special election will be held. Blanche Lincoln will also lose her job as well. Democrats will also lose Obama and Biden's old seats.

2. Health Insurance Reform passes but is widely hated by many Americans. It will be an albatross around the Democratic neck for decades. The insurance mandate will be struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Insurance will become even more pricey then before.

3. Cap and Trade will be a spectacular failure with coal state Democrats coming out against it. Climate Change will start to recede from national consciousness and the Mexico climate conference will be a back page story that mostly mentions protester violence.

4. Much of the bloom will be off of the Obama rose as he is considered even more Carter-like by the day. The press will talk openly about his "failed promise" and "rhetoric without substance." Obama will be angered by this and have an unscripted and public tantrum sometime during the year. His approval ratings remain dismal throughout 2010.


Foreign Affairs:

1. Iran's government will fall into chaos and there will be a civil war as the military turns against the Republican Guard. Much of it will be out of the world's eye but there will be desperate, pitched battles fought all throughout Iran. UN peacekeepers will have to be called in to prevent large scale killings as the hard-liners become more and more brutal. Fighter jets will be used against Tehran University students and it will shock the entire world.

2. The US will continue to distance themselves from Israel and Netanyahu will start a large-scale building plan in the West Bank. The Palestinian government will be a total shambles with Hamas losing their funding from Iran and Fatah being paralyzed by a search for a successor to Abbas. Peace will look like a distant memory with Obama unable to do anything.

3. North Korea comes back to the bargaining table with Kim's health starting to decline. China will force their client state into more openness but negotiations will get nowhere.

4. Afghanistan will be a major hotspot where US casualties start to mount. However, a joint US and Pakistani presence will cripple the Taliban and Al-Quida in the region by the end of the year. The new battleground will switch to Yemen and Somalia and other failed states with a strong fundamentalist prescience. Al-Quida will be successful in committing a terrorist act in 2010 but it will not be on the same level as 9/11.