There have been some bad predictions about political affairs, but who could've made a good prediction about the state of global affairs after the 2000 election. Sure, there are bad predictions about Bush and his agenda now, but he managed to secure 8 years of power that has upset the applecart. There is damage done that might never get undone. Of course the applecart can be set back up and some if not most of the apples can be saved, but some get damaged for good, and others will develop bruises and be destroyed too early. Firing Donald Rumsfeld was a good thing, but too little too late. Actually there is some good that has come from this. Bush has so damaged the Republican Party with his actions over the last six years that it will take the conservatives a long time to recover, and perhaps the neo-cons will be relegated to political purgatory where they belong.

I've got some bad predictions about the Republican Party, they will not hold major power for a few years. They have some serious damage control to employ. If they begin now, they may rebound by the next round of elections. If they don't change the way they operate, that may not be the case. The firing of the cantankerous and seemingly evil Rumsfeld is a good indicator that they will. That man needs to face charges of war crimes. He was a man obviously drunk on power who didn't even bother to listen to his own generals when he put American lives into the crosshairs, not to mention what he's done to the lives of others around this world. Iraq is a mess and will be for some time. I don't think Bush should face charges, though they may be leveled. There's no way an American President can face criminal charges outside US borders, it would be the beginning of the end, but his secretary sure could. It would send a message even to the oval office. While I have some bad predictions about the immediate fate of the Republican Party, those predictions probably won't fly past the next election cycle. For one thing, the Republican Party is quick to react to public outcry, that is, they will change the way they operate when they lose power. They did after the Contract with America failed and they briefly lost control of all three branches of the government and they will again. The firing of Rumsfeld offers evidence. The democrats on the other hand, refuse to change, so they will offer less of a challenge to the Republican Party if it cleans out its closets, buries the neo-cons, and moves more towards a liberal center a la McCain and Schwarzeneger. The democrats didn't win for anything they did this election cycle, though they will claim they did. They won because they were the lesser of two evils. If they don't change their modus operandi soon, we may be down to a one party government, and that right there is a scary proposition. There are always presidential election predictions, but this one is simple, if the democrats forge ahead with the same weak ticket they've offered for five of the last six elections, they will fail again, even after holding the advantage of following a George Bush fiasco of a White House. For instance, as fed up and distrustful as I am with the Republican Party, I couldn't vote for any kind of a ticket with Hillary on it. She is as power mad and deceitful as any Republican. We need a Giulliani or an Edwards led ticket, or better yet, those two together.