Let the polls and pundits say what they will. If Deb Dillard of Clifton is correct, John Kerry will be the next president of the United States — and for two terms.
Dillard, 46, has been practicing astrology since 1975 and has taught it for 15 years in the Washington Metropolitan area. And if her past predictions are any indication of the future, come Nov. 3, George Bush will be looking for another job.
"I FIGURED OUT who's going to be happy on inauguration day, Jan. 20, and it's John Kerry," she said. "Bush is not going to be a happy camper."
Last Monday, Oct. 18, Dillard attended a meeting of the Astrological Association of Northern Virginia, in Fairfax — she's the president — and that's where she unveiled her prediction. Every October, she said, "We have a 'No Guts, No Glory' panel in which we have to use astrology and predict what we see in the coming year for the U.S. or for world personalities."
Her prediction was Kerry winning the upcoming presidential election — and another in 2008 — with John Edwards as his vice president for both terms.
"I compared Kerry's and Bush's astrological charts to the inauguration date, and it does not look like a happy day for Bush," said Dillard. "But by the middle of February, he either gets a job offer or an idea about a foundation he wants to start."
The way Kerry's chart looks, she said, "He's in the public eye — which he wouldn't be if he didn't win. And he's traveling up in the public eye and becomes more prominent. It also looks like he's making decisions about who he trusts — possibly picking his cabinet."
Dillard also did Edwards' chart and, interestingly, she said, "Edwards looks like he has a drop in pay — which he would, if he were vice president, instead of an attorney. He literally is giving up a lot of his income to become vice president."
Actually, her accuracy in the last presidential election gives her some credibility. She predicted Bush would win, after a controversy about the votes.
AT THE LAST 'No Guts, No Glory' panel in October 2000, said Dillard, "I said, 'I think Gore is going to get the popular vote, but Bush will get the electoral vote and become president.'" But because, on election day, the planet Mercury appeared to be "stationary retrograde" — not moving, and getting ready to go backward in the sky — she also predicted a period of confusion before a clear winner was declared.
That type of situation "has never happened before on a presidential election day," she said. As a result, in her prediction to the panel, a month before the election, she also said there'd be "a mixup in the voting and we wouldn't find out who won until three weeks later, when Mercury went direct again." And, said Dillard, "That's about how long it took."
So if this veteran astrologer is right, inauguration day will be a time of celebration for Kerry. As for Bush, she said, "There's a sadness — which makes sense if you've got to turn over the keys to the White House to someone else."