Political Experience: What Matters, and Why?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I see (and respect) your point, but I can't agree with it. If judgment and character matter to me, I'm not voting for an "empty suit," which to me indicates choosing political expediency over character and the courage of one's convictions.

Like I said, judgment and character aren't the most important things to me and even if I was to stipulate that Obama had judgment and character in spades, I still wouldn't vote for him based upon the direction he'd take this country and the sort of folks he'd put on the bench.

With respect to the ages of the 4 typically liberal justices on the Court, I never even considered them as I'm not so worried about them being replaced by someone who would tend to vote the same way as I'm worried about one of the 4 conservatives (no, I don't think Kennedy is classifiable as anything) being replaced by someone who would give the liberals a solid 5/6 vote majority. Scalia is 72, as you said, so another 4/8 years might be iffy for him, and none of the justices are really young. Anything can happen, and that concerns me.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Kevin

With respect to the ages of the 4 typically liberal justices on the Court, I never even considered them as I'm not so worried about them being replaced by someone who would tend to vote the same way as I'm worried about one of the 4 conservatives (no, I don't think Kennedy is classifiable as anything) being replaced by someone who would give the liberals a solid 5/6 vote majority. Scalia is 72, as you said, so another 4/8 years might be iffy for him, and none of the justices are really young. Anything can happen, and that concerns me.

I would imagine Scalia has a similar plan as Ginsburg, in that he's not going to leave the bench unless he believes that his replacement will be someone who subscribes to the same school of thought. Thomas, Alito and Roberts are fairly young, and I don't think any of them have any serious health problems (beyond Roberts' health concerns).

If Obama and Biden are elected, I think their first SCOTUS pick could be VERY interesting. Biden was one of the leaders of the charge against Bork, so I could see the Republicans putting up a big fight for just that reason.