The dirty little secret is that the conservative talent pool on the federal courts these days is larger and deeper than the liberal one, mainly because Republicans have been in power far longer than Democrats recently and have therefore had more opportunity to cultivate a strong bench on the bench.

While both parties feel pressure to keep the bench diverse, Democrats have less latitude for bucking these expectations in judicial nominations than Republicans do. The core constituency that Republicans must satisfy in high court nominations is the party's social conservative base, which fundamentally cares about issues, not diversity, and has accepted white men who practice the judging it admires. By contrast, identity-oriented groups are part of the core Democratic coalition, so it's not enough for a Democrat to appoint a liberal. At least some of the time, it will have to be a liberal who also satisfies certain diversity categories.

I hope the party continues to think of the future, as they build their game. Would be a shame to eliminate top players from SCOTUS contention, simply because they don't score high in the diversity/quota system. (Meaning, if we say there are two "women" seats on the Court, doesn't that default to 7 "men" seats under the bean-counting system?) Better to put the best qualified people in there -- Elena Kagan has not yet argued a case before the Court? -- and continue building the bench, so to speak, so that in years to come, the most proven and meritorious candidates are in power?

Then again, I thought Obama should have gained a bit more experience before jumping into the top job, and still harbor beliefs -- hopefully to be proven wrong for the country's sake -- that he is swimming in waters far from shore without the ability to bring us onto dry land. And no matter how much "expert" economists assure us the deficit can rise indefinitely and more money can be printed, the long-term plan shouldn't be to continue tossing life jackets to those overboard, without some way of bringing them in. IMagine: a sea of floaters, and artificially floating at that.