This afternoon, I stumbled across the Red Barron's Iowa Caucus Predictions. They seemed pretty good, but as I looked at them, I could not help thinking about Iowa in 2004. Based on that, let me come up with my projections:

Romney - 38%
Santorum - 32%
Paul - 18%
Gingrich - 11%
Bachmann - 1%

Okay. It's not perfect. It leaves out Perry and Huntsman. But, for serious politicos, the numbers should look familiar. In 2004, another Massachusetts politician running in the opposition party's caucus got 38% of the vote.

This was followed by a young attractive ideologue whom you have to wonder a bit about. The two of them became the opposition party ticket, so perhaps we will see a Romney/Santorum ticket.

Coming in third was the populist. I have to wonder if Paul will give an enthusiastic speech about going on to New Hamphsire and South Carolina and Nevada and have the mainstream media go after him.

Former House Speaker Gingrich seems like a good stand in for former House Majority Leader Gephardt and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann may be a good proxy for Congressman Denis Kuchinich.

To complete the parallel, we need to watch out for a State Senator running for U.S. Senate that gets endorsed by Ron Paul and delivers a stunning speech at the Republican Convention. He could become President in 2016 after Obama defeats a Romney/Santorum ticket.