Will Safire's Office Pool, 2009

Will Safire has released his annual office pool in which he invites readers to predict how some of the year's biggest news stories will play out in 2009.

Here are my picks:

1. In Demo-dominated D.C., post-postpartisan tension will pit:

(a) lame-duck Fed chairman Ben Bernanke against Fed chairman-in-waiting Larry Summers and Fed chairman-of-Christmas-past Paul Volcker (a k a “The G.D.P. Deflator”) over an “imperial Fed”

2. Springtime for G.M. will lead to:

(b) a “pre-pack bankruptcy” auto rescue sweetened by federal pension protection and guarantee of new-car warranties

3. Toughest foreign affairs challenge will come if:

(a) Afghanistan becomes “Obama’s War” or “Obama’s Retreat,” and

(b) Iraq backslides into chaos after too-early U.S. withdrawal

4. Oil selling below $50 a barrel will:

(c) be the equivalent of a huge U.S. tax-cut stimulus

5. Best-picture Oscar goes to:

(b) “Slumdog Millionaire”

6. The non-fiction sleeper will be:

(d) “Losing the News,” by Alex Jones, and

(e) “Ponzi Shmonzi: The Bernie Madoff Story,” crash-published by a dozen houses

7. The don’t-ask deficit at year’s end will be:

(c) $1,393,665,042,198 and no cents. (Why so specific? A billion is a thousand million, and a trillion is a thousand billion. That’s 10 to the 12th power, or 1 followed by 12 zeroes). I'm kidding about this pick, I would much rather (a) "under $1 trillion, thanks to the new administration’s cutting of waste, fraud and abuse, as well as tax-soaking of the remaining rich" be the case. —Rachel

8. In Congress:

(c) among Senate Democrats, Judiciary chairman Pat Leahy’s influence will rise because Supreme Court nominations will take center stage, while Harry Reid’s clout dissipates because of home-state weakness

9. Post-honeymoon journalists and bloody-minded bloggers will dig into:

(b) suspicion by conspiracy theorists about the unremarked lobbying that led to the expensive renaming, after 72 years, of the Triborough Bridge to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge just in time for Caroline Kennedy’s campaign for anointment to an open Senate seat

10. The Supreme Court will decide:

(e) that in al-Marri v. Pucciarelli, a legal U.S. resident cannot be held indefinitely at Guantánamo

11. Obama philosophy will be regarded as:

(a) proudly liberal on environment and regulation and

(b) determinedly centrist on health care, immigration and protectionism.

12. Year-end presidential approval rating will be:

(c) sinking but 30 points higher than that of Congress and the news media

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/opinion/29safire.html to see the options, and Safire's picks.