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26 May 2009 12:23 pm

Check And Mate?

Stu Taylor ponders the shrewd politics of Obama's choice:

The Republican dilemma is underscored by the fact that the Sotomayor actions they might be most eager to attack are themselves especially likely to engage the sympathies of Hispanic voters. In a 2001 speech that I have criticized, for example, Judge Sotomayor suggested that "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life." This will strike many Republicans as the essence of the ethnic and gender stereotyping that liberals once properly abhorred. But with Republicans already in danger of being seen as the white-male party, rushing to the defense of white males may not be a winning argument politically.

This president is more cunning than he might seem. Today's news photos of Sotomayor are also strikingly attractive and charismatic. You can imagine how this pick plays in the West and Southwest. As shrewdly as the Huntsman pick for China, this is both a defensible policy pick and a brilliant piece of domestic politics. The visuals of Jeff Sessions laying into her will not help the GOP in exactly those places it desperately needs. Advantage: Obama.

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