I was told I was an idiot for predicting that Carson would fade out before Trump. I optimistically said Carson wouldn't drop out till after South Carolina. I think he'll be gone by mid February now. The Republican nomination fight will be spectacular. A fight remembered for its brutality--with Rubio barely edging out Trump, but getting bloodied in the process. Rubio will pick a senator as his VP so that the Republican ticket will have some Congressional experience--maybe someone with private business cred (there are currently three Great Lakes area Republican senators who fit that demog and the Rust Belt is exactly where this next election is going to be fought out--so maybe Pat Toomey, Dan Coats, or Rob Portman are good guesses). Trump will have a blast in the fall lobbing stink bombs at the Democrats, mostly through his Twitterings. Amazingly, this gimmick will not grow old and the media will eat it up.
Our side will nominate Hillary. Sigh. I'm really trying to get ready for this. The alternative is inevitable. I think she'll win, but it'll be far closer than either of Obama's victories. The turn out will be lower in raw numbers than in 2016. Her veep will be Julián Castro. He'll have at least two major gaffes and will have to survive a Democratic whisper campaign that needs to be dumped. If she's smart, she'll make that known before the convention, specifically before it's clear that Rubio will be the Republican nominee.
There will be at least one major effort at a 3rd party candidacy--someone trying to play populist against the two Washington insiders running for president when the public is desperately in the mood for change. But it will peter out. There's simply no wiggle room (yet) for the evolution of a 3-party system under our current Constitution. The word "change" itself will be worn out by everyone trying to pretend that they and not their opponent is the agent for change in the election.
Democrats will gain 2 seats in the Senate. Republicans will win 10-12 seats in the House. There won't be shit for change. The ice caps will melt by 2050 and the India-Bangladesh conflict over refugees in the 2040s will be a bloodbath. Mexico will become a superpower in the 22nd Century, taking full advantage of its two oceanic coastlines and its economic leadership of Latin America. Humans will evolve an additional finger, but lose the littlest toe on each foot, as the webbing there doesn't offer a swimming advantage. It will be pigs, not dolphins, who succeed us as the dominant life form 20 million years from now. When the sun goes supernova, the Porcenites will already have colonized Alpha Centauri.
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