So, Obama has made his decision, and it’s Sotomayor. While my Hispanic acquaintances are all thrilled to bits, the fact of the matter is that she’s not much of a liberal. Like Obama, she’s a centrist. She will stand up for programs like affirmative action and will vote to keep Roe, which is good, but she won’t be anything special.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Repubicans will go on about how she’s the “most liberal” of the possibilities, but the really liberal judges were eliminated from consideration by the Obama team.
Can’t get very worked up over this. Barring some revelations of personal issues, I expect she’ll pass, and that’s good, but liberals shouldn’t be getting very excited. As with the election of Obama, this is a triumph of social identity markers over actual liberalism.
plus ca change
lambert strether
So social identity markers have 11 dimensions? And is my pony in one of them?
jawbone
How do we even know where she will rule on Roe?
Obama, per NewsHour or NPR, never discussed Roe or abortion with her. In 7 hours together.
Ed
This continues Obama’s pattern of making appointments that would have been fantastic, if they were made in the early 1990s in a Dukakis administration.