The Obama Standard Revisited

The link comes via Ace, whose entire post is worth a read.  I just want to highlight a few additional quotes from Obama's speech.

"Now, the test for a qualified judicial nominee is not simply whether they are intelligent. Some of us who attended law school or are in business know there are a lot of real smart people out there whom you would not put in charge of stuff. The test of whether a judge is qualified to be a judge is not their intelligence. It is their judgment.

The test of a qualified judicial nominee is also not whether that person has their own political views. Every jurist surely does. The test is whether he or she can effectively subordinate their views in order to decide each case on the facts and the merits alone. That is what keeps our judiciary independent in America. That is what our Founders intended.

Unfortunately, as has been stated repeatedly on this floor, in almost every legal decision that she has made and every political speech that she has given, Justice Brown has shown she is not simply a judge with very strong political views, she is a political activist who happens to be a judge. It is a pretty easy observation to make when you look at her judicial decisions."

The White House and the Press have been doing nothing but trumpeting Sotomayor's intelligence and background, but Obama himself said that those alone were not enough.

"Judicial decisions ultimately have to be based on evidence and on fact. They have to be based on precedent and on law. When you bend and twist all of these to cramp them into a conclusion you have already made -- a conclusion that is based on your own personal ideology -- you do a disservice to the ideal of an independent judiciary and to the American people who count on an independent judiciary."

Hmmmmm.  I wish that is what he truly believes, but it sounds like the opposite of the empathy that Obama desires as expressed in his speeches in the clips below.

Republicans need to thoroughly vet Sotomayor, but should they decide to vote No, Obama's own standard affords them plenty of reasons to support a No vote.  The best way to beat back the media backlash that is sure to follow any Republican No vote is Obama's own words.  There are plenty to choose from.