Editor’s note: The IJ is reprinting some of the late Beth Ashley’s columns. This is from 2006.

While you and I were circling the mall looking for a parking place, our world was moving, as always, toward its latest crisis — or maybe a heavenly breakthrough.

Wouldn’t it be nice to foresee the future?

Or maybe it wouldn’t.

At a Christmas get-together last week, we all checked in with our predictions for 2007.

You could tell that many of us had Iraq on our minds — predictions ranged from “we’ll be out by next Christmas” to “politicians will get so bogged down in the Iraq Study Group report that there’ll be no movement at all.”

No one had any good predictions about the Middle East.

One person decided that Hezbollah would triumph in Lebanon — not a cheery thought for those who had hoped democracy would prevail.

Some guests took out their anger at President George W. Bush: “By February, he will be shown to be psychotic,” said one. Another: “He will be forced to testify about his crimes.” And another: “He will be impeached.”

It will be interesting to see.

A few predictions dwelt on things at home: One man believes that half of America’s multiplex movie houses will close, their revenues consumed by Netflix. (I chimed in with a prediction that music stores will close, too — done in by iPods and the availability of musical downloads.)

Then someone asked me about the fate of newspapers, and I, of course, asserted they would survive — wishful thinking? — though I conceded that the ways people access the news is changing fast. What a whirlwind of change we live in.

A lot of the guests dealt with the 2008 elections, even knowing that the presidential slates will not have been chosen in 2007.

We did allow that much could happen between now and then:

Would Hillary Clinton implode, weighed down by the messy history of her marriage, or hobbled by the attack dogs who undoubtedly lie in wait? Would Democratic loyalists forgive her for wobbling along the middle of the road — or for voting for a preemptive war? One of our number said she would fizzle. Another said she would have legal problems. A third: “Hillary will be nominated, with Obama as her vice president.”

Would Barack Obama eclipse all rivals, buoyed by his movie-star smile and a stump speech that calls for inclusion? The naysayers are already dissing him for lack of experience, but how much experience did former President Abraham Lincoln have? Obama’s supporters applaud his graceful words and lack of spin, and his message of working together.

Voters seem sick of the same old faces with the same old excuses for inaction: maybe they’ll decide to sweep out the old and bring in someone new.

Will a new face emerge — or an old one?

Someone predicted Al Gore will enter the race, which seems improbable, given his self-imposed retreat from competitive politics. Of course, some voters are still angry with him for a too-cautious campaign in 2000, but, now that he has reinvented himself as the world’s leading guru on global warming, could he come across as a leader?

Dennis Kucinich is back, positioned once more as a super-progressive spokesman and one who embodies high principle. Among Democrat hopefuls, the lineup includes several who are basically just names to me — can Tom Vilsack or Bill Richardson break through with a clear course for a better future?

No one spoke the name of John Kerry. No one would dare.

On the Republican side: one of our party decided that John McCain’s call for more troops in Iraq will kill his bid to be president. Possibly, possibly. Emotions right now are all over the map.

If McCain flames out, who is there left? Rudy Giuliani? (I shudder to think it. When he spoke here last year, his vanity was grating.) Newt Gingrich?

Condoleezza Rice?

Discussing all this kept us churning. We all looked to 2008 with a bit of trepidation, a bit of hopefulness. But 2007?

Good things can happen — and bad. Could there be another tsunami? Catastrophe in Afghanistan? Another New Orleans-type flood, or the long-awaited 8.5 San Francisco earthquake?

What will be the next big thing? Is it something we can’t even imagine — another 9/11, or an invasion from outer space?

Will a new messiah visit Earth, bringing hope and love and togetherness?

We know 2007, like all the years before it, will be awesome, but just what will happen remains a mystery.

As does the rest of 2006.