CBS News' Predictions for 2010
CBS News' chief Washington correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer assembled a group of Washington's best reporters for a round table on his Sunday talk show today and asked them what they expect to see from their various beats in 2010.
Here is what they foresee covering in the new year.
"I think that the Senate Democrats are going to lose their super-majority of 60 Democrats," Capitol Hill correspondent Nancy Cordes predicted about the upcoming 2010 midterm elections. "There are more Democratic incumbents who are in trouble than Republican incumbents in the fall. And that means that the president's agenda - getting it passed is going to be a lot more difficult... they won't be able to break a filibuster," she explained.
National security correspondent David Martin said additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan will "reverse the Taliban momentum in Afghanistan. And that will be the beginning of a long, hard slog which will leave tens of thousands of American troops in Afghanistan at the end of President Obama's first term."
At the same time, though, Justice correspondent Bob Orr predicted that "we will face more homegrown terror threats from radicals here reaching across to known operatives. And we need to button that down now."
And, from Hawaii, chief White House correspondent Chip Reid said he expects to see health care reform passed which will create a void in Washington which will be filled with "jobs, jobs, jobs - and making progress on the economy."
He added that "in 2010, President Obama is going to be defined as a war president much more so than in the previous year."
The newly-appointed CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford said she expects, "Justice John Paul Stevens will retire from the Supreme Court at 90, giving Obama his second nomination. Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be the nominee to replace him."
She added with a laugh that her alma mater, University of Alabama, will win the national football championship on Thursday, "because we're not playing the Horned Frogs" - the team from Schieffer's school.
The moderator threw his own New Year prediction into the ring. "I would predict that the Associated Press Coach of the Year Gary Patterson will lead the TCU Horned Frogs to victory in the Fiesta Bowl over a very good Boise State team," he said.