Making predictions is a famously perilous pursuit. It doesn't take a great deal of courage, however, to forecast which story will be the biggest of the coming year, the one that will dominate the news in 2008: the election of a new president of the United States. When the shopping stops after Christmas 2008 and Americans pause for a long weekend and the countdown to 2009, we will engage in the traditional collective look back at the year that was. It will be easy to spot the story that held our attention while watching television news, talking with friends, and chatting with neighbors. No matter what else happens, and much will, from Iraq to Pakistan, Iran to Venezuela, Jerusalem to Gaza, from global warming to oil prices, everything will take a back seat to the presidential contest. And all other stories will be viewed through the filter of electoral politics. Developments on the ground in Pakistan, on the Iran nuclear front, hurricanes, immigration, the housing market, the value of the dollar -- all of it will become fair game for comment and criticism by and about the candidates, everything a new test of political athleticism in the presidential decathlon.
2008: U.S. Presidential Election Will Dominate an Eventful Year
