President Hagel?

In a feat of great prescience, I am going to predict right now that the next President of the United States will be Chuck Hagel, currently the senior senator from Nebraska. A Republican and a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hagel did vote to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq, but he has been quite critical of the Administration's handling of the war since at least 2004.

Hagel has solid enough conservative credentials to get by the GOP primary -- especially with that party's activist right wing not being sold on the more moderate Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, and John McCain's all-out support for the war making him a liability for his party in the general election. With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the Democratic frontrunners, it is -- sad to say -- likely that quite a few voters will see Hagel as the safe white male alternative to whichever one of those two emerges, probably quite beaten up, from the primary gauntlet.

Hagel also has an independent streak that will appeal to many moderates, and the war experience of a twice-wounded grunt that makes his pronouncements on the current conflict above reproach. I don't agree with much of the man's political views, excepting the war, but he does seem like a decent guy, and I am convinced he will be the next occupant of the Oval Office.

Don't forget: You heard it here first.