ANOTHER PUBLIC PREFERENCE THAT OBAMA WILL IGNORE – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  A CNN poll tells us what kind of person the public thinks President Obama should name to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Justice Stevens.  From The Hill:

Most Americans would prefer to see President Barack Obama name a "moderate" or conservative justice to the Supreme Court, a new poll shows.

37 percent of adult Americans say they would like to see Obama nominate what they consider to be a "moderate" jurist to the high court, while 36 percent would like to see a somewhat or very conservative appointee.

That's 73% for a moderate or conservative. 

25 percent of adults would like to see a somewhat or very liberal justice replaced to fill the vacancy to be left by the retiring liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday.

But, of course, in the eyes of the Obamans, that 25% is the part of the population that thinks, and brushes properly.

The poll comes as the president has begun reaching out to candidates informally to succeed Stevens, who announced that he will retire at the end of the court's current term in June.

While the president is expected to nominate a left-leaning appointee to fill Stevens's spot, Republicans have still warned that they may filibuster any nominee if he or she falls outside what the GOP defines as "mainstream."

Yeah, but unless it's a real nut case, the filibuster will fade away. 

Americans' preference for a new justice roughly mirror their preferences a year ago, when Obama named now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor to fill the retiring Justice David Souter's seat.

Right.  He took the public's advice then, too.

COMMENT:  This president, like all presidents, wants to shape the Court in his image.  (Of course, he wants to shape the Universe in his image as well.)  He'll ignore the poll and go with his liberal-to-kooky base. 

Our objective is to keep the conservatives on the current Court healthy.  Send them home remedies.

April 22, 2010