Approximately 11 percent of the civilian work force (including marginally attached workers) is unemployed. About 9% of all mortgage holders are late on their payments. These are probably overlapping sets of individuals; presumably many who lose their jobs or can't find work then can't keep up their house payments.

If these unemployed have to sell their houses, they are selling into a down market where they will obtain little equity from the sale, in all likelihood, or they may find that they cannot obtain a high enough price to pay the mortgage they can't keep up payments on.

The Congress seeks a stimulus package. What is its purpose? What is its ideal shape?

"This week, seven key witnesses informed Mr. Branchflower through their attorneys that they would not provide depositions. Their depositions, which had been agreed to and scheduled earlier with Mr. Branchflower, were cancelled within the last 72 hours."

So isn't there anyone with investigatory power, or even just lawyerly or reportorial skills, who could inquire into exactly how all these witnesses to "troopergate" happened to obtain lawyers and then all follow the exact same tactic in the same 72 hours? Who are their lawyers; who is paying their lawyers? And many other questions that follow.

When, in 1972, George McGovern had wrapped up the Democratic nomination very late in the process, he then turned to the question of the Vice Presidential running mate. He asked Ted Kennedy, as related by Rick Perlstein in his terrific "Nixonland." Kennedy turned him down.

Then McGovern asked Abe Ribicoff, and was turned down again. Time began to run out. Because of credential fights and general disorganization, the McGovern campaign hadn't vetted a large number of people. They loked into Leonard Woodcock, president of the UAW, but his Catholic credentials proved suspect when someone reported he had not been to mass in 20 years. They decided on Kevin White, mayor of Boston, but Ted Kennedy put the kibbosh on that. They moved to Gaylord Nelson, who said no but suggested Tom Eagleton. He had been in the Senate for three years but was almost unknown even to politically savvy people. Rumors reported that Eagleton had a drinking problem, but that McGovern's people did check out, and found no support.

Read more »

From Brad deLong:

'Two things seem salient (i) she fired the state's public safety head for being unwilling to help her in her family's vendetta against her ex-brother-in-law, and (ii) she introduced herself to America by saying that she was against the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere." '

Both these strike me as Eagleton-like: that is, examples of inadequate vetting and impulsive selection that are sufficiently serious as to imperil the viability of the nomination. It is not clear that the Republicans will keep Palin on the ticket; it may be likely but it is not certain.

Moreover, the mainstream media, instead of going grossly gaga over the fact that a former beauty contest winner is on the national ballot, should raise now, and urgently, the question of whether a pending corruption investigation and a blatant, obviously intentional lie in the first press conference are disqualifying. It's pretty clear, isn't it, that if Obama had made this choice he'd be pressured by the cable shows to recant?

Nor should the MSM automatically deem acceptable Palin's views that creationism should be taught in public schools and that global warming is not necessarily a product of human activity. These two views are, respectively, contrary to the Constitution and nuts. How can she be expected to uphold and defend the Constitution or the viability of our culture in the face of climate change? Of course she could recant, scurrying away into ambiguous non-denial denials, but at least she should be interrogated, instead of merely photographed by an admiring media interested not in what she thinks but how she looks.