# Worst political prediction **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195 "2014-09-11T16:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/21 "2014-09-11T19:34:54Z")
> [@common\_good](#): > > Chamberlain is reviled for this phony “peace”. But it is seldom recognized that his effort to avert war allowed the Brits time to prepare for it. He does not deserve the ridicule. That may be true, but the political prediction of “Peace for our time” is still one of the worst. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/22 "2014-09-11T19:52:42Z")
“I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/23 "2014-09-11T20:28:34Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” > > -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 The Japanese had other ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/24 "2014-09-11T20:32:22Z")
There were a number of pundits including Tom Pettit at NBC and Sam Donaldson at ABC who believed in 1984 that Ronald Reagen felt he accomplished all that he had set out to do in his first term, and wouldn’t run for reelection. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/25 "2014-09-11T21:13:48Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Mods, could you please fix the typo in the title. > > Sorry. Gotcha covered. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/26 "2014-09-11T22:07:18Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” > > -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 And they weren’t. Once Japan attacked the United States, it wasn’t a foreign war. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/27 "2014-09-12T01:19:45Z")
“_… a beginning invasion by the state into the personal life of the individual, represent a taking away of individual responsibility, a weakening of national caliber, a definite step toward either communism or totalitarianism._” “_…behind it will come other government programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day as Norman Thomas said we will wake to find that we have socialism … We are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free._” Awesome predictions in the early 60s by the AMA and Ronald Reagan, respectively, on the horrors that would befall if Medicare was enacted. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/28 "2014-09-12T05:27:28Z")
The late Christopher Hitchens was a gold mine of wonderful predictions. Perhaps his best moments were in the 1980’s, when he kept assuring his readers that the Soviet Union was riding a wave of economic success and cruising to an easy victory over the evil, American-style capitalists. For instance: “It is quite likely that historians will record this unhappy period not as an age of Reagan at all, but as a footnote to the age of Michail Gorbachev.” An yet people still praise this guy for his logic and intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/29 "2014-09-12T05:35:32Z")
In 1972, someone wrote [a book](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/05/my-election-prediction-the-polls-will-be-right-and-obama-will-win-with-290-electoral-votes/) called “How McGovern Won the Presidency and Why the Polls Were Wrong.” ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/30 "2014-09-12T06:50:39Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > In 1972, someone wrote [a book](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/05/my-election-prediction-the-polls-will-be-right-and-obama-will-win-with-290-electoral-votes/) called “How McGovern Won the Presidency and Why the Polls Were Wrong.” Damn – [it seems to be out of print](http://www.amazon.com/McGovern-Presidency-Polls-Were-Wrong/dp/0345029453/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410504491&sr=1-15)! “We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/31 "2014-09-12T07:32:22Z")
Surprised no predictions about Obama’s policies, for example that he would immediately get us out and keep us out of Middle Eastern wars. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/32 "2014-09-12T07:57:28Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Surprised no predictions about Obama’s policies, for example that he would immediately get us out and keep us out of Middle Eastern wars. Well, he’s still very much poised to take away everybody’s guns away, I know that. Any minute now. Y’all should probably stock up on guns and ammo while it’s still legal ! ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/33 "2014-09-12T19:20:49Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Surprised no predictions about Obama’s policies, for example that he would immediately get us out and keep us out of Middle Eastern wars. Who made that prediction? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/34 "2014-09-12T19:25:33Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The late Christopher Hitchens was a gold mine of wonderful predictions. Perhaps his best moments were in the 1980’s, when he kept assuring his readers that the Soviet Union was riding a wave of economic success and cruising to an easy victory over the evil, American-style capitalists. For instance: “It is quite likely that historians will record this unhappy period not as an age of Reagan at all, but as a footnote to the age of Michail Gorbachev.” > > An yet people still praise this guy for his logic and intelligence. It _was_ the age of Gorbachev. Just not quite the way Hitchens thought. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/35 "2014-09-17T04:45:22Z")
The end of history predictions post Cold War were quite off. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/36 "2014-09-17T15:28:15Z")
Shelby Steele still gets talking-head gigs despite writing and bolding titling this book: [http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Man-Excited-About-Obama/dp/1416559175](http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Man-Excited-About-Obama/dp/1416559175) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/37 "2014-09-17T15:39:10Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The end of history predictions post Cold War were quite off. I’m not a big fan of Fukuyama’s thesis, but it was widely misunderstood and misrepresented. He never meant that historical events would cease, but rather a different point - that there was no longer a serious ideological competition at the cutting edge of human social evolution. > **[The End of History and the Last Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_History_and_the_Last_Man)** > > The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book of political philosophy by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama which argues that with the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy—which occurred after the Cold War (1945–1991) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)—humanity has reached "not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Weste... It’s as true as it ever was (assuming it was ever true). ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/38 "2014-09-17T16:02:49Z")
A recent classic [The Odds Against Obama: Why History and Logic Make the President a Likely Loser](http://www.amazon.com/The-Odds-Against-Obama-ebook/dp/B0093L8YXW/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1346273390&sr=8-10&keywords=odds+against+obama) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195/39 "2014-09-17T16:15:46Z")
Aug. 26, 2014 – President Barack Obama has again emphasized that U.S. combat troops will not be sent back into Iraq. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-political-prediction/698195.md?page=1)