11 Bold Predictions for the Year Ahead

In an amazing stroke of luck, Santa left a crystal ball under the tree for me last week. Despite trepidation at foreseeing the future, I felt obligated to take a peek and provide readers with a list of 11 surprises for the coming year.

Osama bin Laden is captured on Oct. 15 by U.S. Green Berets in an Iranian desert cave, outfitted with French kidney dialysis equipment and tended by Russian doctors. The discovery energizes President Bush's already surging campaign for re-election and pushes the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 12,750 for the first time.

Democrats cry foul, complaining that the administration had pinned the al Qaeda leader months before and saved his capture for a rainy day. Yet their peacenik candidate loses his key foreign policy rhetorical plank and goes down to a landslide defeat that eclipses past losses by McGovern and Dukakis.

...