If the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination were an opera, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would be belting out arias while all the other candidates just carried spears in the background.

At least that seems to be how most of the national pundits see it.

But why believe all those national self-appointed so-called experts when you can believe a local self-appointed so-called expert?

It says here that the Democratic Party nominee for president will be (kindly pause here for a drum roll) ... John Edwards.

Yeah, the guy who ran for vice president in 2004 on the same ticket as John "But seriously, folks, I was trying to make a joke" Kerry.

A bit of advice: When you're through reading this bit of doggerel, carefully cut it out of the newspaper, preserve it under glass for _ oh _ about 14 or 15 months ...

... Then (and this is very important) remove it from the glass before you shove it into my face.

Feel free to accompany this action with appropriate pejorative remarks about how I must have been drunk or on drugs when I made that John Edwards prediction back in January of 2007.

Truth be known, when it comes to predictions, I'm awful ... just like all those "psychics" who always claim to have had visions of things before they happen.

The late Jeane Dixon comes to mind, having claimed to have predicted President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

However, she actually predicted that Richard Nixon would beat Kennedy in the 1960 election, the Soviets would land a man on the moon before the U.S., and that there would be a cure for cancer in 1967, among many, many other goofs.

More recently, the New York Daily News reported that celebrity "clairvoyant" Sylvia Browne had told the family of then-missing Shawn Hornbeck that he was dead shortly after the Missouri boy was kidnapped four years ago.

She said his body could be found in a wooded area 20 miles from their Richwoods, Mo., home, near two large, jagged boulders.

Hornbeck, now 15, was found alive earlier this month, and his alleged abductor has been arrested.

Browne, who, according to the newspaper was accused by the boy's angry family of wanting them to pay her to help find his body, has apologized.

I'll apologize, too, if I'm wrong about the Edwards thing, but remember, my prognostication comes free of charge.

Which is probably all it's worth.

Way back in 1970, I predicted in a big sports section headline that boxer Jimmy Ellis would knock out fearsome Joe Frazier in six rounds.

Before the fight, I had bought into the spiel of Ellis' wily corner man, Angelo Dundee, the great trainer of _ among many others _ Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Angelo was a friend of mine, and I was very fond of Ellis, a heavyweight champ and a very decent man. I got to know both of them while I worked for a Miami Beach newspaper.

Of course, in one of the most lopsided championship fights in history, Frazier knocked out Jimmy in four brutal rounds.

It was like watching a tiger feast on a wildebeest.

I had been very, very wrong, and many of those who had read my column and had seen the big headline delighted in letting me know just how wrong I had been.

But a wise elder colleague, Russ Harris, perhaps the finest newspaper horse racing handicapper ever, kindly told me something I'll never forget.

"Sometimes," said Russ, now with the New York Daily News, "you can know too much about a horse race."

He was right. I had analyzed and over-analyzed the fight, and I determined that Ellis' superior boxing skills would overcome Frazier's awesome power.

It's altogether possible, if not probable, that I'm over-analyzing the political horse race, too.

I figure Obama fades early, Edwards wins the Iowa caucuses, takes the New Hampshire primary and becomes the obvious choice for Democrats who don't want to vote for Hillary Clinton.

About 15 months from now, I'll either be singing my own praises for my keen political insight or singing the blues because I will keep getting this column waved in my face.

But right now, it's almost a year before the New Hampshire primary, and this particular opera _ to use the words of Texas sports writer Dan Cook _ "ain't over till the fat lady sings."

___

Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.