What the Pundits Know

Pundits love to predict.  But which of them is actually any good at it?  Luckily, a Hamilton College class took on the pundit predictions of 26 folks to see which prognosticator gets the prize.  Who won?  Who sucked?  You can read here, or just see my partial list below.

1. Paul Krugman
2. Maureen Dowd
3. Ed Rendell
4. Chuck Schumer
5. Nancy Pelosi

I have a hard time considering politicians as pundits, but let's go with it.  Who were the worst?  In order with #1 going to the last place, and so on, it's:

1. Cal Thomas (just read his column and you'll know why)
2. Lindsay Graham (sigh, another politician)
3. Carl Levin (dittto)
4. Joe Lieberman (ditto again)
5. Sam Donaldson (no surprise)
6. George Will (ditto)

What can we take from all of the above?  Politcians make lousy predictors, but then again so do journalists and their fellow travelers.  Even the best, it seems, were no better than a coin toss in accuracy.