Category: Dick Morris Award Nominee

"[T]he chance of Republicans winning control of either chamber in the 2010 midterm elections is zero. Not “close to zero.” Not “slight” or “small.” Zero," – Stuart Rothenberg, Rothenberg Political Report, April 27, 2009. Chait pounces.

A reader writes:

These are a little old in internet years, but they dovetail nicely with this thread: 11 Predictions That Back to the Future Part II Got Right / Got Wrong

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A reader writes:

Thank you for referencing the my favorite movie trilogy.  But Zemeckis was not necessarily "way off."  The reason that Marty McFly looks like shit at 47 is because he got in that car accident when he was a teenager, which ruined his career as a guitarist, crushed his hopes and dreams, and led him down a depressing life in Hill Valley that caused both his physical appearance and soul to deteriorate rapidly.  Michael J. Fox, on the other hand, became a television and film star at an early age and remained one through his forties.  This led to him living a dream life with his smokin' hot wife, millions of dollars, and a job that he loves.  The Parkinson's thing was a bit of a road block, but his early success gave him a beautiful outlook on life and allowed him to attempt to turn the Parkinson's into a positive.  Hence he's looking pretty good at 49. 

But yeah, Zemeckis was way off with the flying cars, power laces, and hoverboards.

French artist Nils Guadagnin is working on the latter.

Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future Part II, was "way off."

"Even if Coakley wins – and my guess is she'll lose by a double digit margin – the bill is dead. The most Obama can hope for is a minimalist alternative that simply mandates that insurance companies accept people with pre-existing conditions and are barred from ejecting patients when they feel like it. That's all he can get now – and even that will be a stretch," – Andrew Sullivan, January 18.

Yep, I changed my mind after my initial panic. But I deserve the whack.

“Pelosi said that, ‘We don’t have the votes for passing the Senate bill’ and that should have just ended it. Any discussion of another scenario is juvenile. … We’re absolutely in full fake cheerleading mode. I think Nancy Pelosi has absolutely no moves left. I think she knows that now," Lawrence O'Donnell, the Democratic Senate Finance Committee staff director during the ’93-’94 health care debate, on February 1 this year.

"The health care bill, ObamaCare, is dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection…. Democrats have talked up clever strategies to pass the bill in the Senate despite Brown, but they won’t fly…. ObamaCare went into the emergency room in Massachusetts and didn’t make it out alive." – Fred Barnes, Jan. 20, 2010. Yglesias pokes fun.

"Word has it that Microsoft will feature an immensely powerful search engine in the next generation of Windows, due out by 2006. Not only will it incorporate a Web-search algorithm similar to Google's, it will also be able to search a user's desktop, local area network, and e-mail. … As a result, Google stands a good chance of becoming not the next Microsoft, but the next Netscape. … As it did with Internet Explorer, Microsoft is likely to embed its browser directly into its Windows software. Combine that ease of access with the fact that the Microsoft browser will be more functional, and it's tough to see why many Windows users would even bother with Google," – Clay Risen, 2004.

by Chris Bodenner

Props to Cliff Stoll for owning up to his terrible prediction:

Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995 howler. Wrong? Yep. At the time, I was trying to speak against the tide of futuristic commentary on how The Internet Will Solve Our Problems. […A]s I've laughed at others' foibles, I think back to some of my own cringeworthy contributions. Now, whenever I think I know what's happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be wrong, Cliff…

Er, a reader writes:

Cliff Stoll was actually wrong even *more* spectacularly than that: he wrote an *entire book* on why everything we have now would never come to pass: Silicon Snake Oil. He doubled down on his crappy prediction. He was just making a living by being a contrarian “expert”, is all. Now? Well, hully gee, he makes Klein Bottles . . . and sells them online.

Buy some bottles here (and you gotta love the Web 1.0 design).