The resignation of Justice John Paul Stevens has set in motion a new round of "who will Obama's pick be"? It's more than a little distasteful to watch Republicans such as Senator Orrin Hatch trotting out their usual claptrap about an activist judge being unacceptable, when it is precisely activists that they have sedulously sought to place on the Supreme Court in the past several decades, as long as they hew to conservative views. They have an original view, you could say, of originalism, the doctrine that they purport to champion, which serves, in reality, as a smokescreen for smuggling in their own radical views about corporations and the like.
Obama himself will undoubtedly come up with a moderate pick, one that the GOP will work overtime to depict as some kind of nefarious radical. But in some ways, it doesn't even matter all that much whom he chooses, as heretical as that may sound. The more important part is that he's the one doing the choosing. In watching all the criticism of Obama over the past year, I've begun to think that it would be a valuable thought experiment to imagine what the United States would look like had John McCain and Sarah Palin won the election. We'd probably be at war with Iran, among other things. The economy would be in total shambles. And the Supreme Court? It would be hosting two more Alito clones, handpicked by McCain. Stevens' own career -- first Richard Nixon, then Gerald Ford promoted him -- demonstrates how far the GOP has shifted to the right.
No, this isn't a reason to let Obama off the hook when it comes to his policies and personnel. But I'm just saying that Stevens' resignation offers a reminder of why it's a very good thing that Obama is making the supreme decisions about America's future. And Stevens, who has expressed his admiration for Obama, obviously agrees or he wouldn't be stepping down. Now Obama must step up to the challenge of guiding his next pick safely to the court.
Maiden I, Maiden II and Maiden III, AIG Bailout, AUTO Bailout along with two Job bills totaling
SEVERAL Trillion Dollars
We are STILL Losing Jobs?
How many Trillions does it take to Fix America?
More apparently the way this Administration keeps giving YOUR tax money away to Foreign Banks/Nations
We were Bankrupt before W. left office.
Obama is no FDR, but W. is no Herbert Hoover, he was FAR worse, the worst we ever had.
One question is whether Obama and his boys have the stomach for a major confirmation battle. The more liberal/radical the choice, the more the GOP will fight. Sad to say, Democrats have been guilty of this kind of crap in the past. Remember the Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas hearings? If we're intellectually honest, we can't be surprised if conservatives fight a radical choice.
How many of you really believed Ted Kennedy's rant that black would have to go to the back of the bus and return to segregation if Robert Bork had been confirmed?
Payback is a beach. I hope Obama doesn't go the radical/leftist route in his choice.
Please rise for our corporate anthem.
The neocons won & America lost.
The right will paint whomever as a Stalinist anyway, we might as well get a real progressive in there.
I'm so sick of people BIT ching about what OBAMA HASN'T DONE... If you're not happy vote Republican from now on, you deserve just what you get, short memories and all... Anyone that put him in the same category as Bush must have slept thru the past 8 years, I mean really how assinine can you be???? Fool's gold is for fools and anyone that believe Obama was going to savee the world is just that a fool; it's one thing to campaign and another to governs, just alittle common sense...
Obama has utterly betrayed progressives world wide (those fool enought to have been suckered in the first place) and will take his place beside Bush as the worst 1-2 punch in Presidential history.
The lesser of two evils is...
EVIL
Do you believe a corporation should have the same rights as a person.
If they answer no let the process continue
do you think it's hypocrisy to take campaign donations from corporations in private, then demonize the same corporations in public.
if they answer no, let the games begin.
Thanks for posting, you have my enthusiastic agreement.
Politics is about compromise, negotiation, and discussion. Those on the left who are complaining about "conservative decisions" by Obama are no different than the tea baggers, except maybe without the violent Neanderthal tendencies. As the President said when he won the election: he is the president of all of America.
And if you disagree with that, just stay home and don't vote. But don't blame anyone but yourself when someone like McCain gets elected.
I'll take Leadership over Politics any day of the week.
He's doing exceptionally well, and I'm proud to have voted for him.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/09/johnsen/index.html