Christmas should always come on Thursday. Because that means New Year’s Day is a Thursday. Which puts off Back-to-Work day to January 5.

You have to love the quiet week between the two holidays. But it has its disadvantages. Newspapers and TV news – with little of consequence to cover – deluge us with lists: lists of the old year’s best and worst events, best and worst people and best and worst of everything you can imagine.

As individuals, we all make our own lists: Lists of resolutions. Lists of things to do starting next week.

Judging from all the new faces at my gym New Year’s Day, the top of everybody’s list must be to exercise and lose weight. It happens every January. Oh well, they’ll be gone by February.

So, in honor of 2009, here is my list for the coming year: hopes, questions and stories-to-watch-for. In honor of the 2008 stock market, it’s a Top Six instead of a Top Ten.

1. My hope is that Carter and I figure out a way to make money off this blog.

2. Top story I’ll watch is Bev Perdue and the news media. Like all new governors and presidents, she wants to be the opposite of her predecessor. She promises to be hands-on where Easley was disengaged. The question is whether she can take the poison out of the press-Governor relationship.

3. My hope is that she learns how simple that is. Not easy, but simple. It just takes some perspective and discipline.

4. My hope/expectation is that the Obama Boom kicks in this year, lifting the economy and the Democratic Party’s long-term prospects.

5. My top question is whether the Republican Party will continue its Political Death March by following the Southern Strategy that worked for decades, but is now a road to perdition.
   
6. My one professional resolution (I always resolve to avoid resolutions) is to finish the book I’m writing about Jim Hunt and North Carolina politics – and find a publisher.

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