What the Media, the Left, and Everyone Else but Me Got Wrong About 2024

The internet is forever. And ever and ever. It's useless to try putting one over on the American people by claiming you said something you never said.

If you're a politician, a media personality, or a writer like me, any public utterance or published article is open to inspection with a few clicks and a far too intimate knowledge of Google algorithms. In other words, if you try to fudge the truth, you're toast.

This is the time of year we look back and ponder the stupidity of other people who predicted incredibly dumb things. We can point our fingers and laugh at them, all the while thinking, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Everyone but me. I'm happy to say that my predictions (if you can find them) all came to pass. I predicted Joe Biden would be re-elected in a landslide. I also predicted the Chicago White Sox would win the World Series (they lost a record 121 games). I also divined that the Republicans would lose the House, fail to take the Senate, and elect Matt Gaetz as minority leader in the House.

It's not important that none of those things came to pass. The Many Worlds Theory of quantum mechanics tells us that "all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are physically realized in an infinite number of other universes." Somewhere, in some other universe, all those things actually happened. Perhaps not all in the same universe, but who's counting?

If you don't believe me, ask a quantum mechanic or watch "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

So, I claim prescience for anything and everything that happened in 2024. It's up to you to find where I went wrong in this universe at this time in the continuum.

Others in the media weren't so lucky. Here's a short list of media prediction fails in 2024, courtesy of Semafor.

Media missteps included NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein underestimating the impact of inflation on politics, Fox News anchor Dana Perino incorrectly predicting Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce would get engaged and CNBC financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin not putting “DOGE and the pairing of Elon [Musk] and Vivek [Ramaswamy]” on his 2024 Bingo card, according to the piece. Despite the variety of answers, one topic — Joe Biden’s lack of mental acuity — seemed to sit at the top of the list for many respondents.
“Like many others, I was completely, utterly, totally, embarrassingly wrong about [President Joe] Biden’s lack of mental competence,” progressive British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan told Semafor.

"I thought people would be more unnerved by JD Vance," MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said. She added, "Less the cat lady thing and more the ‘Americans [are] going to have to get over dictatorphobia’ Mencius Moldbug' thing," referring to the pseudonym for blogger Curtis Yarvin.

Of course, Maddow wasn't the only media personality who underestimated and got JD Vance totally wrong. Who else got "Vance shreds Walz during the debate" on their Bingo card?

Maddow shed almost half of her audience after the election. I bet she didn't see THAT coming.

The Bulwark's Tim Miller couldn't employ his usual, over-the-top snarkiness in grudgingly admitting that he got Joe Biden's mental acuity all wrong. He also thought Matt Gaetz would survive, though you would have to have been pretty dense not to have seen Gaetz taking a long walk off a short pier.

I was wrong about Biden the man, Matt Gaetz’s durability in Trump’s GOP, and the Nuggets offseason. https://t.co/I1nEVwaucF
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) December 30, 2024

The most critical and common "confession" by the media figures in the Semafor piece had to do with "Omigod! Are you saying that Joe Biden was actually 'non-compos mentis' this whole time?"

As mentioned above, left-wing talking head Mehdi Hasan was aghast at his own stupidity. "Like many others, I was completely, utterly, totally embarrassingly wrong about Biden's lack of mental competence (But I remain right about Trump's!)"

One brain cell at a time, people. One brain cell at a time.