# Would it look or be good for Obama to withdraw Sotomayor's nomination? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 28, 2009, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913 "2009-05-28T09:49:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/21 "2009-05-28T13:25:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > No. Those who are currently against Obama aren’t going to change their minds over this. I’m asking if it’s the floating voter who might float one way or another. Or if it’s the white male who will be reassured. When the white male seeking reassurance is David Duke, it isn’t a sign of strength for the President to offer said reassurance. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/22 "2009-05-28T13:34:06Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > While some of her comments are troubling, it hasn’t risen to the level where withdrawing her name would be appropriate or politically smart. They’re not even that troubling when taken within their wider context. Again, it’s deliberate shitstirring by the Republicans. Every Supreme Court nomination goes through this sort of political haggling - the party in power portrays the nominee as just, wise and experienced, and the opposition portray him/her as partisan and unfit. Whichever makes the better case eventually prevails. To suggest that the existence of some (fairly flimsy, in this case) accusations from the opposing party is grounds for withdrawal is to give them too much credence. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/23 "2009-05-28T13:38:22Z")
I find the OP is contradictory. > [@Quartz](#): > > Certain comments and decisions Sotomayor has made give her a decided anti-male, anti-Anglo cast. So being anti-male, anti-Anglo is a bad thing. Obama should ignore things like race and gender in making appointments, and apparently should ignore arguments from Latinos and women that they have been excluded from power. And yet the OP then says: > [@Quartz](#): > > I suggest that it would be beneficial: it would show him as a strong anti-racist, demonstrating to the white males that he is on their side. [my underlining] So the OP seems to be saying that it’s a good thing for the President to be on the side of white males. That contradicts the first statement. [QUOTE=Quartz] Looking at the Harriet Miers incident, Bush came out of that very poorly: he was in a poor place to start with, dithered, and continued to back her, but really had little to lose. [/QUOTE] Bush’s problem with Meirs was two-fold - it reeked of cronyism, and it upset his own base. Neither of those elements is present here with Sotomayor, so it’s not really a good comparison. On the first point - Bush II wants to reward a long-time supporter with a cushy job, fine - there’s lots of lower courts and boards and tribunals that the President could appoint her to. No one would have batted an eye. But this was the Supreme Court! You don’t use the Supreme Court as a convenient dumping ground for a crony. Second, conservatives in the US have spent the last several decades building up a strong conservative theory of jurisprudence, with highly respected lawyers, academics and some lower court judges espousing it. They’ve been doing that with the long-term view in mind, so that when a vacancy comes up on the Supreme Court, they have lots of well-qualified people to be appointed, and can carry the weight of debate on the Court for the conservative view. Guys like Roberts and Alito are good examples of those kind of conservative heavy-weights. And then, when a position comes up, Bush wants to throw it away to satisfy a crony who happens to be a lawyer, disregarding all that time and effort his base has spent to get one of their own on the Court? So he ended up with Meirs, who was an easy target for the Democrats to attack as an unqualified person who only got the nod because she was a Bush flak, and who received only luke-warm support at best from his own Republicans - and in some cases, outright opposition from some conservatives, if I remember correctly from four years ago That’s not the case here. Sotomayor’s got the academic chops to be on the Court (Princeton undergrad, Yale Law), practised as a state Assistant District Attorney, then private practice, plus she’s been appointed to the federal courts by both a Republican president (Bush I) and a Democratic President (Clinton), at which time she got support from some Republicans in the Senate, like Orrin Hatch. It’s just not a valid comparison to the Meirs fiasco. ---
**Author:** ![Zephyurs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/dfb087/32.png) [@Zephyurs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zephyurs)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/24 "2009-05-28T13:44:04Z")
Certain comments and decisions Republicans have made give them a virulently fascist, racist cast. This is not the thread for discussing those comments. Would it look or be good for Senate Republicans to resign en masse to remove themselves from the public debate? Suppose they were to say something along the lines of, “There is no room in the Senate for even the suspicion of bigotry. Bigotry is bigotry no matter the source or the target.” I suggest that it would be beneficial: it would show them as strong anti-racists, demonstrating to the American public that they are on their side. Further, it gives them an opportunity to show quick and decisive action and good judgment. Conversely, if they continue to stay in the Senate and further racist incidents come to light, then surely they risk a substantial loss in their authority? Who else might replace them is also beyond the scope of this thread. Looking at the 2006 election incident, legislative Republicans came out of that very poorly: they were in a poor place to start with, dithered, and continued to call for collective punishment against Hispanics, but really had little to lose. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/25 "2009-05-28T13:49:50Z")
The Conservatives do not have a problem with the President nominating Sotomayor, they have a problem with the President nominating _anybody_. The anti-nomination machine will run with any candidate he picks-they just have to plug in the already chosen buzzphrases: Too liberal Not experienced enough Bigot Picked because she/he is a particular sex Picked because she/he is a particular race Picked because she/he is a particular religion All of the above(which seems to be the case here-desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.) ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/26 "2009-05-28T14:00:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Suppose he were to say something along the lines of, “There is no room on the Supreme Court for even the suspicion of bigotry. Bigotry is bigotry no matter the source or the target.” That’s funny, we just recently had a chief justice – William Rehnquist – who wrote that Plessy v. Ferguson was correctly decided, and who worked to supress minority voting in Arizona before he was appointed to the court. We certainly had room on the SC for that bigotry, or “suspicion of bigotry.” ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/27 "2009-05-28T14:08:43Z")
Two ways to answer this question:[ol] [li]Specific to this case - allowing the GOP base to attack a qualified Hispanic nominee on the basis of identity politics serves a Democratic agenda well as it makes it clear to any Conservative Hispanics that they are not welcome in the GOP. If the GOP keeps disrespecting that demographic then much of the Southwest may turn Blue yet. Team Obama should highlight the attacks on her as yet another illustration of how extreme wingnutism is in a position of power in the GOP.[/li][li]As a hypothetical - how would it be perceived for a President to withdraw a Supreme court nominee in short order? For the sake of discussion, let us imagine a case in which some unknown act or statement came up that really _was_ very questionable. It would not look good. Maybe standing by a hypothetical fatally flawed nominee would look _worse_ but either way would strengthen the hand of a President’s opposition, anger the base that supports the nominee, and enfeeble his future moves. Good thing that such is not the case with this actual case.[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/28 "2009-05-28T14:11:49Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > That’s funny, we just recently had a chief justice – William Rehnquist – who wrote that Plessy v. Ferguson was correctly decided, and who worked to supress minority voting in Arizona before he was appointed to the court. We certainly had room on the SC for that bigotry, or “suspicion of bigotry.” I hope Obama is a better man than Bush. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/29 "2009-05-28T14:13:26Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What’s your drink of choice, **Quartz**? 😉 Given my current straitened finances, water. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/30 "2009-05-28T14:20:06Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I hope Obama is a better man than Bush. What does Rehnquist have to do with (either) Bush, unless Reagan delegated the job of selection of a new Chief to his VP, which I doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/31 "2009-05-28T15:05:22Z")
Her comments bother me to some degree. Kinda like a rock in my shoe. It’s enough to make me stop, take the shoe off and remove the rock, then continue about my business. Sotomayor is going to get confirmed, unless there’s some bombshell out there we don’t know about yet. As a judge, she’s obviously qualified. She’s liberal…more so than Souter, but Obama has the right to select a nominee that’s liberal. The comments I’ve seen do not rise to the level that would make her unsuitable for the bench. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/32 "2009-05-28T15:28:09Z")
The people that are truly worried about Sotomayor’s ‘racism’ are the same people that can make or view an image like [this](http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l197/omgzebras/Web%20Stuff/fn-20090504-sotu-lg.jpg) and see nothing wrong with it. So no, Obama shouldn’t cave in to their whining. It would make him look weak and would be pandering to a group of people that won’t be satisfied with anybody left of Dick Cheney anyway. Besides that, keeping Sotomayor helps keeps the media focus on a particularly noisy and IMO ugly side of the republican party. They have an image they need to reform, especially with minorities, and attacking Sotomayor isn’t doing anything to help that. If they want to keep slinging dirt while they’re already deep in a hole that’s fine with me. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/33 "2009-05-28T16:16:59Z")
Some nice quotes from other SCJ’s in this article that parallel Sotomayor’s quote but they came from the guys on the right. > **[Scalia, Alito Quotes Blunt Conservative Attacks On Sotomayor](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/antonin-scalia-judges-mak_n_208531)** > > Scalia, Alito Quotes Blunt Conservative Attacks On Sotomayor ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/34 "2009-05-28T16:19:59Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Looking at the Harriet Miers incident, Bush came out of that very poorly: he was in a poor place to start with, dithered, and continued to back her, but really had little to lose. Nitpick: I don’t think Bush came out poorly at all. Harriet Miers was a tactical red herring who he never intended to actually hold that position. When everyone was fatigued from the debacle, he got Alito through quite smoothly. It was one of the most deft political maneuvers I’ve ever witnessed. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/35 "2009-05-28T16:21:22Z")
Obama hates the white man remember? Why would he consider that a negative? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/36 "2009-05-28T16:23:50Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Would it look or be good for Obama to withdraw her nomination? Suppose he were to say something along the lines of, “There is no room on the Supreme Court for even the suspicion of bigotry. Bigotry is bigotry no matter the source or the target.” Only if it would make sense to withdraw a nominee who jaywalked because a judge must respect the law. I don’t know how it could be considered good for Obama to react to the idiotic natterings of any right wing moron. That’s not leadership. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/37 "2009-05-28T16:30:27Z")
Whenever an administration withdraws a nominee, it is always perceived as a negative, even if it is done for good cause. It implies poor judgement on the part of the president to have made a bad choice that must be reconsidered. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/38 "2009-05-28T16:52:06Z")
It’s clearly a case of Affirmative Action. Was a person who graduated first in their class at Yale not available? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/39 "2009-05-28T17:04:28Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Nitpick: I don’t think Bush came out poorly at all. Harriet Miers was a tactical red herring who he never intended to actually hold that position. When everyone was fatigued from the debacle, he got Alito through quite smoothly. It was one of the most deft political maneuvers I’ve ever witnessed. This is nonsense that’s only believable if you ignore Bush’s well-documented reliance on a small circle of friends and advisers, like Karen Hughes, Rice, and Rumsfeld, and his habit of promoting unqualified people and rewarding incompetents. Given his track record it’s entirely believable he would nominate his own counsel and overlook people with more impressive experience, and stick with her for three weeks when it was clear his own party - despite having enough votes to approve her - wouldn’t do it. Alito also did not “get through quite smoothly:” it took three months to approve him, it was a near party-line vote, which was the narrowest in several years. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913/40 "2009-05-28T17:22:59Z")
> [@omgzebras](#): > > The people that are truly worried about Sotomayor’s ‘racism’ are the same people that can make or view an image like [this](http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l197/omgzebras/Web%20Stuff/fn-20090504-sotu-lg.jpg) and see nothing wrong with it. So no, Obama shouldn’t cave in to their whining. It would make him look weak and would be pandering to a group of people that won’t be satisfied with anybody left of Dick Cheney anyway. At this point he could nominate Newt Gingritch and we would being hearing screams that he was somewhere to the left of Che Geuvara. They have yelled wolf too many times, and it reeks of intellectual dishonesty. It is old and tired and driving more people away from the party daily. I was particularly angry this morning when NPR had someone on who opposed her, in the name of fairness. I am tired of this idea of fair being to let any opposing view, no matter what far out wacked view it is, being presented with equal weight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-look-or-be-good-for-obama-to-withdraw-sotomayors-nomination/497913.md?page=3)