CNN Poll: Most Americans Want Obama To Replace Scalia & Senate To Yield

by JASmius



Boy, the Obamedia is going into full-court-press mode on this already, aren't they?:

A new poll reveals a majority of Americans want the empty seat on the U.S. Supreme Court to be filled — now. But they're divided on whether the new jurist should have a conservative or a liberal sway.

The CNN/ORC random sampling of 1,001 adults found 58% are in favor of Barack Obama nominating a new justice instead of leaving the position vacant until the next president takes office, the latter scenario of which Republican lawmakers insist upon.

Only 41% of those polled said they would rather the Supreme Court seat — which became vacant last month after the death of Antonin Scalia — remain empty until 2017.

The blood pressures of Senators McConnell and Grassley just went up ten points, I'm guessing.  I hope they upgraded their deodorant, and got those spinal reinforcements.

But while the face of this poll looks very favorable to the White House, I would hasten to point out to one and all that, given that the vast majority of Americans don't even know who the vice president is, much less can name their own senators and congressperson, I seriously question that filling Scalia's Olympus seat is ever going to be a front-burner issue in this insane, chaotic election campaign.  Besides, Trumpmania is going to wipe out the GOP congressional majorities swiftly and comprehensively - which, ironically, argues for Mitchie The Kid and the Grass Man getting the best deal they can get now to stave off the even more horrifying possibilities that will emerge from Presidents Sanders or Rodham....or Trump.

The other reason why replacing Scalia isn't going to conflagrate is that, even according to CNN/ORC, while a large majority want to see Scalia's seat filled NOW!, they, um, don't agree on how to accomplish that end:

As to the political bent of the new jurist plurality, 37% of those polled believe Obama should nominate someone who will keep the Court status quo.

Another 32% want a liberal-leaning justice while 29% want a more conservative one.

Which is to say, respondents want Obama to nominate another Scalia by a 66%-32% margin, since that is the only way the "Court status quo" can be maintained, and a jurist more conservative than Scalia has never lived and does not exist.  And The One will never nominate anybody like that, which is why the McConnell-Grassley blockade remains firmly and stoutly in place.

For now.

It does make one wonder, though, what the Democrats would have done if President Bush41 in 1992 or President Bush43 in 2008 had had the opportunities to make respective additional SCOTUS selections.  Would Joe Biden and Chucky Schumer, respectively, have led comparable Senate confirmation embargoes?  What angle would equivalent polls have been flogging?  Those are, of course, rhetorical questions, but it would have been instructive to have seen this process play out from the opposite partisan direction.  If for no more than to be able to set a betting line on how soon Senate 'Pubbies capitulate.  This "uncharted territory" stuff is morale-sapping.

To say nothing of being bad for my blood pressure.