Or rather, his calmness, or coolness….
President Barack Obama is a shrewd, intelligent politician and tactician. Those on the right who think he is stupid, or nothing but a speechmaker who cannot think without a teleprompter, have severely underestimated their opponent, almost irredeemably so. President Obama knows all too well the nature of his opponents. He set a trap for them this past week that the virulent right wing base of the Republican Party, with all of their, shall we say, tendencies, fell right into.
The method to his madness: if your opposition is going to destroy themselves, step out of the way.
He nominated a judge who is more qualified in judicial experience than any Supreme Court Justice currently living. Indeed, she has more judicial experience than any judge going back 70 years. I have read some of her opinions already, and I must say, if she has an judicial philosophy, it is conservative and not liberal. She follows precedent, and shows restraint.
But she is also only the fourth woman ever to be nominated to the court, and she is the first Hispanic to be nominated. As a result, the right wing opposition is placed in a predicament. Any opposition to her nomination could be seen as an affront to the Latino community, given the historic nature. Republican office holders understood that, hence the measured “wait and see” reaction from many Republican Senators on Tuesday and Wednesday. They understood the electoral consequences.
But the non-office holders are not bound by such concerns. Gingrich, Tancredo, Limbaugh, Liddy et al do not answer to the voters. As such, their contempt was unrestrained. And their opposition so far is based on her ethnicity and her gender. The idea that she must be a practitioner of identity politics, a person whose every success is due to preferential treatment, etc., is apparently one they absolutely cannot resist.
President Obama knew this. He got a win-win. An excellent, qualified, historic nominee, that was guaranteed to drive the right wing so crazy that they would reveal their true colors, all the more alienating his opposition from the mainstream of America.