Half of all Presidents elected in ’08…
By Primo Encarnación
One day into the new season, at the almost-like-New Wrigley Field, the Cardinals are in first place and my beloved Cubs are in last. So we see that you can new-up a stadium as much as you want, but it’s still the same old Cubs, and have been since their last Series championship in 1908. Roosevelt was President – the first Roosevelt! – and William Howard Taft was 3 weeks from being elected his successor. During his Presidency, Taft supposedly invented the 7th inning stretch, threw out the first Opening Day Presidential First Pitch, and attended three Cub games, where they garnered a losing 1-2 record. He skipped Opening Day 1912 because of the Titanic tragedy. Besides setting these precedents, he didn’t do much else important as President.
But there is one post-Presidential precedent he did set that I want to discuss. In 1910, he had appointed Supreme Court Justice Edward Douglass White to be Chief Justice. In 1921, that former Confederate soldier, Louisiana Senator, Southern Democrat and supporter of the Plessy decision went to his eternal reward not a moment too soon. In a fit of lucidity, Warren Harding appointed Taft to succeed the Chief Justice he himself had nominated. Taft sailed through a secret Senate confirmation, 60-4. The yeas and nays have never been made public.
Why is this important today? Well, President Hillary is going to have to appoint at least one Justice. As spry as the Notorious RBG is, not one of us can outrun Anno Domini forever. Hers is only the most likely seat to come open soon, there are others for various reasons which may as well, including Kennedy’s swing seat.
Barack Obama is a Constitutional scholar (and officer), was a lecturer on ConLaw at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School, has won the Nobel Peace Prize, has served as the most powerful man in the free world, has appointed Justices, has been a party to several Supreme Court cases, winning a few (!) and will be a relatively young 55 when he leaves office.
Although he is a White Sox fan, wouldn’t he otherwise make a fantastic choice for President Clinton II to name to the Court in an historic echo of Taft? I know there are still almost two full years left in his Presidency, but just remember… you heard it here first.
I am OK with this idea.
1I wonder if anyone would even make this suggestion to Barack and to Hillary? Goodness, can’t you just hear the RWNJs howling already? LOL
2Oh, I love the sound of RWNJ heads exploding in the morning… or at any other time.
3Love it. Have a camera when Ted Cruz hear’s it; never seen a video of a head explode live.
4I’m sorry, JJ, but this is nowhere near the first time anyone has suggested this.
In fact. the Prez has already addressed this idea by saying that he thought being a Supreme would be too “monastic” (his words) an experience.
Still, once he and Michelle have finished their respective memoirs and made a gazillion $$$ for them, he might change his mind.
5Unless the D’s pick up a whole truckload of seats in Congress in ’16, Hillary, if she wins, is going to meet with the same kind of obstructionism that President Obama has. While I’d love to see President Obama on the Supreme Court, I imagine that I’m more likely to see the Senate confirm Donald Duck than President Obama.
6I agree with BarbinDC. From our perspective it would be wonderful, but I imagine he and Michelle have lots of plans for a busy and productive future without right wingers fighting him every step of the way. And, yes, this definitely isn’t the first time it’s been discussed.
7It’s OPENING DAY…. FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL.
YEA!
And we all know…..
Barack Obama…. would make an excellent, and welcome, … addition to The United States Supreme Court.
Git it done in a couple of years.
8And demote the fool John Roberts to Junior Associate Justice and make Obama chief Justice.
9We need to appoint young, like the Rs do.
10There is a huge value in Dems not mentioning this possibility. While the vision of tea baggers overheating and bursting into flames has entertainment value, the idiot fringe of the GOP might be able to leverage the fear of Obama as a Supreme into votes in 2016 or 2018.
That said, in 2021 a 59 yo former President Obama, if so inclined, might start to look more attractive as a Supreme. Especially coinciding with Clinton 45’s re-election in November 2020.
11If Obama is appointed,white pointy hats and white sheets would be the wardrobe choice of Sinnut wingnuts for his cofirmation lynchi…….battle. The “N” word will become fashionable again and hemp will be mandated as a farm crop for ropes to lynch uppity blacks. Even wingnuts opposed to medicinal maryjane will gladly vote for noos……….hemp.
12Can also see wingnuts demand Obama recuse himself from every single case argued and threatening him with impeachment if he doesn’t.
13SCOTUS – current age/age at accession to the Court
Ginsburg 82/60
Scalia 79/49
Kennedy 78/45
Breyer 76/45
Thomas 66/43
Alito 65/55
Roberts 60/50
Sotomayor 60/55
Kagan 54/50
Toss the two outliers, and the remainder were all nominated between 45 and 55.
14President Obama on the Supreme Court would be a dream come true, but I’m afraid Micr @11 pretty well nailed it.
15Wow! Looking at that lineup, we’d better have some strong lefties warming up in the bull pen. Maybe Senor Primo Encarnation, can put forward a few more.
16Damn cool beans!
17maryelle, Primo says that he doesn’t know the bench for the Bench all that well, but that JJ’s Bubba should be on any short list.
18JJ’s Bubba would be an excellent choice, as would Rich Whitney (Green/Progressive.)
19To fully rotate the nut job heads 360 degrees, both the President and First Lady Obama should be nominated.
20Also, he’s a con-law scholar but he has zero judicial experience and pretty much all Pubs think he has acted unconstitutionally in most of his executive orders. No way would he get confirmed.
21I was just about to write that Elizabeth or Hillary should nominate both Michelle and her hubby when the time presents itself, but I kept reading down here and sure enough, PKM was on it:
Polite Kool Marxist says:
April 6, 2015 at 4:09 pm
To fully rotate the nut job heads 360 degrees, both the President and First Lady Obama should be nominated.
My gawd would they get lathered up, FauxNooz and Limpballs, et al, would piss and moan like never before. It would be fantastic to watch.
22President Eisenhower appointed Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice and it was the best thing that he did as president! Later Ike lost all credibility when he stated that he regretted making Chief Justice Warren. Ike’s only other accomplishment was the Interstate Highway System.
23@captain dan
I like your thought there.
IM<HO, I opine that local bench or even most statewide bench experience is not beneficial for a Supreme. In fact (crawling out on the real thin part of the tree) time sitting on a such a bench subtracts from time the pre-Supreme could be spending studying Con Law and Con History at a beyond-PhD level. Most of us operating at the unlicensed wannabe attorney level cannot clearly articulate why a law applied to a particular fact set is unconstitutional, we just know it is. A Supreme will make that decision up or down and articulate why a few dozen times a year from taking bench to death. And, vectoring off point for a moment, I also opine that a lifetime appointment has a way of freeing one's conscience to do the right thing.
24Elizabeth Warren wants to be a Supreme Court Justice.
25No, I didn’t hear it here first. It’s been spoken of in Democratic legal circles for quite some time.
26