Ramesh, you note that Erick Erickson speaks of a “very credible rumor” that the intended nominee dropped out at the last minute. My bs detector suggests this might be some weird back-spin back-channel spin from the White House (of the “hey, give us a break, we had a good nominee but she quit and we had to go out there with somebody”). I mean, come on. Everybody on the relatively short list has been there for months and months. The idea that somebody would drop at the last minute rather than keep his or her name out of contention at an earlier phase seems a tad far-fetched.