2014 Predictions

I just gave you my scorecard for my predictions for 2013; if you missed it, you can find it here. Now, I present my predictions for 2014. As usual, I'll grade myself on these a year from now -- but feel free to print them out or save a PDF to keep me honest!

My predictions are:

1. Neither the US House nor the US Senate will change hands.
2. Mitch McConnell will lose his Senate seat.
3. Wendy Davis will lose her bid to become Texas governor.
4. The major issues of 2014 will be guns and health care.
5. Oregon will become the first (and perhaps only) state to reverse its own anti-gay-marriage ballot measure by a subsequent ballot measure.
6. The US will start putting boots on the ground in East Africa
7. The US U3 unemployment rate will go below 6.5%.
8. The movement to divest from Israel will become a major news story.
9. Major reforms in surveillance methods will pass Congress.
10. George Zimmerman will have another run-in with the law.
11. Super Bowl XLVIII will be Denver versus Seattle.

By the way, since the Alamo Bowl is December 30th, it doesn't make sense for me to predict the winner as part of my 2014 predictions. Nonetheless, I predict Oregon in a blowout.

With that said, my reasoning for all of the above predictions is below.