Rewind
A Look Back At Looking Ahead
Late in 2005, John Hughes, former editor of the Christian Science Monitor, offered “some thoughts about possibilities, and a few probabilities, on the national and international stages that will capture the headlines in 2006”:
“On the home front, President Bush will have a narrow window before the midterm elections. He probably will fail to push through Social Security, but he may get tax reforms…
The mid-term elections are unlikely to wrest either the House of Representatives or the Senate from Republican hands…
After the elections it will be pretty much downhill for a lame-duck Bush administration. Congress will be distracted by posturing and maneuvering for the 2008 election...
Candidates who claim they have not given a thought to running for president will suddenly emerge. Hillary Clinton will be one of them on the Democratic side, John McCain on the Republican side…
On the foreign front, Iraq will still be central in 2006. By the end of the year, Saddam Hussein will have been found guilty of enormous crimes against humanity and given the death sentence. US troop reduction will have begun…
North Korea or Iran - and more likely Iran - will have acquired a nuclear weapon or weapons...
Fidel Castro may have vanished from the scene in Cuba, and Cubans spearheaded by the military will be resisting a rush of Cuban exiles from Miami who want to return to Cuba to reclaim properties of which they were dispossessed...
Tony Blair, who has stood so strongly with the US on Iraq, will have come to the end of his prime ministership in Britain and will be on a lecture assignment at some think tank or university of distinction in the US...
India's economic strength will continue to grow fast. As US companies farm out more and more high-tech work to India, salaries there will escalate, and US companies will start looking for alternative lower-salaried workers in other countries...
China's economy will start cooling off, but China must still be reckoned with as a coming superpower…
Modern technology in communications and transportation will continue to develop at a rate almost beyond our comprehension. Much of the good new stuff under the Christmas tree in 2005 will be overtaken by amazing new stuff by Christmas 2006.”
Late in 2005, John Hughes, former editor of the Christian Science Monitor, offered “some thoughts about possibilities, and a few probabilities, on the national and international stages that will capture the headlines in 2006”:
“On the home front, President Bush will have a narrow window before the midterm elections. He probably will fail to push through Social Security, but he may get tax reforms…
The mid-term elections are unlikely to wrest either the House of Representatives or the Senate from Republican hands…
After the elections it will be pretty much downhill for a lame-duck Bush administration. Congress will be distracted by posturing and maneuvering for the 2008 election...
Candidates who claim they have not given a thought to running for president will suddenly emerge. Hillary Clinton will be one of them on the Democratic side, John McCain on the Republican side…
On the foreign front, Iraq will still be central in 2006. By the end of the year, Saddam Hussein will have been found guilty of enormous crimes against humanity and given the death sentence. US troop reduction will have begun…
North Korea or Iran - and more likely Iran - will have acquired a nuclear weapon or weapons...
Fidel Castro may have vanished from the scene in Cuba, and Cubans spearheaded by the military will be resisting a rush of Cuban exiles from Miami who want to return to Cuba to reclaim properties of which they were dispossessed...
Tony Blair, who has stood so strongly with the US on Iraq, will have come to the end of his prime ministership in Britain and will be on a lecture assignment at some think tank or university of distinction in the US...
India's economic strength will continue to grow fast. As US companies farm out more and more high-tech work to India, salaries there will escalate, and US companies will start looking for alternative lower-salaried workers in other countries...
China's economy will start cooling off, but China must still be reckoned with as a coming superpower…
Modern technology in communications and transportation will continue to develop at a rate almost beyond our comprehension. Much of the good new stuff under the Christmas tree in 2005 will be overtaken by amazing new stuff by Christmas 2006.”
posted by Steve Trumbull | 2/16/2007
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