And if it's not just Detroit then it can't really be the fault of the UAW now can it?

Europe's motor industry is in a panic. In boardrooms across the continent the talk is of the biggest emergency for 60 years -- or at least since the 1973 oil crisis.

As executives ask the European Union for a €40-billion bail-out to match or surpass the $25-billion sought by the American Big Three manufacturers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler thousands of staff are being laid off. Sales are collapsing as the recession bites, with vehicles stacking up at ports around the world.

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Survey: Most auto execs support McCain

Automotive executives overwhelmingly support Sen. John McCain for president and have a negative outlook for the industry, according to a survey released today by the law firm Dykema Gossett PLLC.

The people who ran their industry into the ground want McCain, because they know a failed executive when they see one.

Ford pardoning Nixon was worse than a deal; it was a favor for a friend. Another emmbargoed scoop from court biographer "staff writer" Bob Woodward:

Months before Richard M. Nixon set a relatively unknown Michigan congressman named Gerald R. Ford on the path to the White House, Nixon turned to Ford, who called himself the embattled president's "only real friend," to get him out of trouble.

"Anytime you want me to do anything, under any circumstances, you give me a call, Mr. President," [Ford] told Nixon during that May 1, 1973, conversation.

World-class teabagging! So, why did Ford pardon Nixon?

Apparently, none of the bright guys on our side saw this coming:

Gerald Ford's miraculous power to "heal" "a divided nation" is now merging seamlessly with the The Wise Men's fetish for Moderate voices. What a surprise. (And does anyone else get the feeling that The Wise Men are laying down a marker for the kind of narrative they want when Bush is forced from office?)

First, MyDD. Now, Josh:

For my part, I can't help but see Ford in a basically positive light and think he did the country an important service in balancing the ship of state after the trauma and shame of the Nixon years. But I'm curious how much that view is tied to my not having lived (or lived with sufficient awareness -- I was 5 and 6) through the period. Thoughts?

Je repete: