I'm having fun reading various pundits' predictions for 2024. In most cases their guess is no better than mine, but sometimes their reasoning, as explained, adds something to my thinking on the subject. Media critic and Fox News contributor Joe Concha posts eight predictions.
Prediction: Donald Trump comfortably wins an ugly presidential election to become the nation's 47th president.
Prediction: Trump chooses Nikki Haley as his running mate.
Prediction: Republicans take back the Senate.
Prediction: Mike Johnson ousted as House Speaker.
Prediction: The Russia-Ukraine war drags on into 2025.
Prediction: Warner Brothers and Paramount Global will merge.
Prediction: The Dallas Cowboys will not win the Super Bowl.
Prediction: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get engaged.
It appears to me predictions 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8 are "gimmes." Trump leads Biden in the polls, the Senate win for Rs is everybody's prediction, the war looks a stalemate where nobody wants to parlay, and the Cowboys are jinxed.
The power couple are clearly headed toward a (probably brief) marriage. Her steely will and his testosterone-fueled alpha level are sure to collide, the question is whether it happens before or after the wedding.
OTOH, Haley as VP is a stretch, and she might not accept. Mike Johnson's future is anybody's guess, and I've no clue about M&A in show biz, whereas Concha should.
Supporting Concha's pick of Haley for Trump's VP, Politico writes:
In last month’s Fox News poll, Trump led Biden by 13 points among men, while Biden led Trump by 4 points among women. If Haley is the nominee instead, she wins men by 16 points while beating Biden by 5 points among women, a net difference of 9 points.
Similarly, the CNN/SSRS poll has Trump ahead by 14 points and Haley up by 12 points among men in matchups with Biden. But while Biden leads Trump by 7 points among women, Biden and Haley are tied in that matchup.
Haley’s potential to close the gender gap while maintaining the GOP’s dominance among men would dramatically alter the electoral math for both parties.
Haley would be a pragmatic choice. She could attract some college educated women to vote R.
Trump made a pragmatic choice before in Mike Pence and came to regret it. Does he want the job enough to bite that bullet one more time? I hope so.
