He seems like a nice guy.

turtlehead sticking to his guns of "ELECTED DICTATOR OBAMA CANNOT NAME NOMINEES - NO CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR HIM"

Sure if Trump or who ever is down 15 in October, they cave. But why cave sooner? What area besides a few criminal rights would it really matter that someone else is more liberal?

Besides, it is Hillary the Republican is running against. It is not like she is unbeatable and there is a chance that the FBI might make her unelectable. The Senate really has to play the hand, see a few cards and by as much time as possible.

Grunch: SUCK IT, LEFTIES; IT'S A WHITE GUY.

I think mostly people are disappointed he's

1) 63 years old

2) As centrist as is possible for a Dem appointee


Not sure anyone GAF about his race & gender.

Sri definitely a better pick.

This should be a snap call for Republicans. He's a moderate and is the best possible nomination we will get from Obama.

Just say, wow we like him. OK, I guess our fears were overblown. Let's have hearings.

How does this hurt them?

Sounds like anti-white guy dogwhistling imo.

It hurts them because they'll all get primaried for doing anything other than obstructing Obama.

Yeah, but it would be so easy to say "look how we tricked him into doing our bidding"

Seems like a no brainer to me.

What's with the liberal meltdown?

An obvious strategy is to nominate a moderate that would normally be easily confirmed in a non-election year. First, it highlights the intransigence of the GOP: Obama is willing to compromise, but Republicans won't even come to the table. Second, if the GOP does confirm, you avoid a Trump-appointed neo-Scalia some percentage of the time while still moving the court significantly to the left. Third, if Trump remains behind in the polls, GOPe types will want to roll the dice with the moderate. This puts a wedge right into the cracks of the fracturing Republican party.

There's also a good chance Garland just removes himself from nomination if it gets close to the election. A lame duck confirmation might be opposed by Democrats and hard right senators who would never vote to confirm Obama's nominee.

So Obama did good. Relax.

Maybe he picked the guy whose name sounds most like "Eric Garner" so as to continue to divide our country?

In all seriousness, it seems like picking a moderate who both sides could tolerate was the clear play here, especially after the Senate Repubs declaration. If he goes clearly liberal they can deny him without looking intransigent; now they're in a position to either confirm Obama's pick (make the base unhappy) or deny a completely reasonable choice in order to continue to play politics (make reasonable people and Conservatives unhappy). A pretty significant percentage of Americans think Obama should be able to nominate someone so they put themselves into an unnecessarily poor position. I don't know enough about Merrick (or really any candidate) to form an educated opinion on the merits of the choice, though, just looking at "the play" here.

Ol' turtle head McConnell doesn't even meet the "no brain" requirements tho

This might be the dumbest take I've ever read...

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...ourt_pick.html

lol Slate

I told you.

hah, don't worry about Republicans accepting this.

https://twitter.com/SenToomey

Obama could agree to dismantle the ACA, abolish the estate tax and get rid of the EPA, and the right-wing base would still be angry at Congress for going along with it because it's Obama.

Seriously though, why would Obama leave him out there as a nominee after the Senate stonewalls him for 7 months? "After extensive discussions with our valued colleagues in the Senate, is is clear that my nominee will not be given a fair chance at confirmation and I have decided to withdraw his name from consideration." Done!

Toomey won't still be in office when the next President is sworn in.

I love how the Republican Party, a significant number of whom will tell you the Republic died when we started directly electing our 100 Senators, suddenly wants voters to get a say on 1 of 9 SCOTUS Justices

That's great #tragicdeath

Can't wait until republicans stonewall Garland because he's obamas nominee and then end up getting Obama as justice when hilldog nominates him. That could be the final death blow to Republicanism

Obama would be totally insane to give up 10 million a year on the lecture circuit to make like 200k doing actual work.

This is a take I agree with

My not very well informed thought is "Did some liberals drink to much right wing koolaid and forget that Obama's pretty moderate and super pragmatic?"