On July 25, the “mentalist” the Amazing Kreskin announced on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon that he had come up with a prediction as to the Republican nominee for President in 2012 and the eventual victor. He had not done so, he told The Observer, by reading thoughts—as he does in the shows he performs in theaters—but instead by reading four newspapers daily (including the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Newark Star-Ledger—and meditating on trends he’d seen.
“I spent 28 hours thinking about it. You can ask my secretary! We didn’t even talk to each other.”
Kreskin (he has legally changed his name) had seen Mike Huckabee as the “best shot the Republican party had” before the former Arkansas governor dropped out. “I think his charisma, his integrity—I’ve done three shows with him, but that’s not why I’m saying this. I had an intuitive feeling that he would pull out. You can quote me as saying he pulled out for an idealistic reason: that he could do more as a broadcaster and a communicator.”
The mentalist is thus unenthused over the Republican field: “You’ve got two fine women and another man came up last night—every day it changes.”
Copies of Kreskin’s predictions have gone to former Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach, New Jersey radio d.j. Jessie Frees, and the Italian restaurant Patsy’s. He plans to unveil the predictions after the election. “I don’t have some prophetic gift,” said Kreskin. “I can sense trends and moods.”
“The only thing we ever learn from history,” said Kreskin, “is that we never learn from history.”