re: SCOTUS Nomination, what is Obama's long game?

I’m sure they have none that extends past November, at any rate. They – and American conservatism in general – are just fighting a holding action, trying not to lose ground more than an inch at a time, even though they see no way in the long run to any Reagan-Revolution kind of victory. They probably would not even hold the House without some careful and brazen gerrymandering, and they hear the clock softly but ominously ticking towards the next census.