Obama nominates Kagan for Supreme Court to replace John Paul Stevens Su

Ivy is about "spin doctoring" and "PR"?

Wow. Um, I don't know where to start. I think some of them are immensely overrated, but let's break it down to the most simple model we can.

The business model of schools like the Ivys (and Stanford, and U. Chicago) is very, very simple, whether they write it down and publicize it or not.

You admit very smart people who are geared for successful careers. And you help pay for their tuition if need be, because tuition is not the point of your business model. When said students go on and become successful, they appreciate you if you've given them a good start and helped them meet other successful people, and then it's payday for the college: gifts and endowment.

Harvard and Stanford have had a brutal time during the downturn, since they're endowment driven, but they're fine.

It's not just spin. And look at the admissions policies; look at the demographics of people attending. it's not just a bunch of trust-a-farians, at all. It's some freaking bright people. The Ivys don't need to really spin anything. If you have a kid get in, and the kid likes the school, you're nuts to not let the kid go.

If you want to assail the Ivys, you're giving in to the Fox/GOP class warfare rhetoric, but embrace it if you want.

 

thank you, its no freakin different

ignore the george bush jrs

embrace the barracks and michelles

 

Most of these Harvard MBA types – they don't add up to dog ****. Give me girls that are poor, smart, hungry, and no feelings. You win a few, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting. And if you need a friend, get a dog.

 

Nope. We need another Cal grad.

 

I generally agree, but the Senate will be expected to judge her on something. She has little in the way of official record, and what she does have is troubling to those that believe in government restraint.

None of that particularly matters though, she'll get approved easily. I suspect that she'll get every Democrat and Independent, and a number of the more Christian Right Republicans for her support of censorship of offensive speech.

She's Washington's kind of moderate. She generally supports expansion of the size and scope of government for most causes, left or right.

 

yes he's smart, he went to a good school.

why would we want a smart person to run the country.

 

Anyone that doesn't follow your pathetic opinions of society would be nice.

 

Haven't formed an opinion on Kagan yet, but you don't have to be freaking durvasa to know that the odds are extremely remote that the nine most qualified people in the country to sit on the Supreme Court didn't all attend Yale or Harvard law schools. We get more like a banana republic every day.

 

i get a Terry Jones vibe.

 

i'm not assailing the ivys, just noting that they're not the only game in town, and it might have been nice to have a nominee from outside the harvard/yale/princton axis. that's no reflexion on kagan, nor on the ivy's themselves, but more a reflection of a desire for some "diverse" kinds of diversity on the court.

 

yep, all them princeton law school grads, tigering it up.

 

Screw Harvard and Yale. We need more people like this guy on the Supreme Court

 

First Sotomayer and now Kagan!

Another New York City Girl!

 

that is sooo something Samantha sould say.

 

Top Strategist Advises GOP To Prolong SCOTUS Fight To Block Obama Agenda

Liberals have been warning President Obama for weeks that Republicans and conservative activists would fight and seek to delay confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee no matter whom he picked. Turns out they were right.

In an April 22 conference call with RNC members, which was recorded and passed my way by a source, activist Curt Levey, director of the conservative Committee for Justice, offered Republican operatives candid strategic advice, pressing them to put up a fight against even the most moderate of judges, and providing a glimpse of the GOP's playbook for obstructing Obama nominees.

The crux of the GOP's strategy is to use Obama's nominee to wedge vulnerable Democratic senators away from the party, and drag the confirmation fight out until the August congressional recess, to eat up precious time Democrats need to round out their agenda.

"t wouldn't take much GOP resistance to push a final vote into early August," Levey advised. "And, look, the closer we could get it to the election, frankly, the better. It would be great if we could push it past the August recess because that forces the red and purple state Democrats to have to go home and face their constituents."

Levey acknowledged that a filibuster likely won't last--that Obama's nominee, now known to be Solicitor General Elana Kagan, will almost certainly be confirmed. But he hammered home the point to Republicans that there's value in mischaracterizing any nominee, and dragging the fight out as long as possible, whether or not Obama's choice is particularly liberal.

"We wouldn't have a lot to object to if it was [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar. He's quite moderate as Democrats come," Levey admitted. "We're not necessarily going to say that if he's nominated, but I think that's the truth." Emphasis mine. This advice was met with laughter by one of the listeners on the call. (Salazar was cited in early reports as a long-shot candidate on Obama's short list.)

"Even if it's a nominee that we can't seriously stop, we can accomplish several things, and so a hard fight is worthwhile," Levey implored. "Certainly it can be to the political advantage of Republicans.... There's everything to be gained from making the Supreme Court vacancy a campaign issue in 2010."

"There's broader goals such as just distracting Obama from other items on his agenda," Levey added. "The tougher the fight the less capital and time and resources and floor time in the Senate there is to spend on immigration and climate change, etc."

It's likely, though, that some Republicans, particularly moderates, will ultimately want to support Obama's choice. Levey urged those senators to go along with the delay.

"For those people who do want to support the nominee, and do want to get points for bipartisanship or for supporting the first Hispanic or first gay nominee or whatever it might turn out to be you'll get just as much credit if you support the nominee in August, as if you support them now," Levey said "I urge everyone not to say that the confirmation of the nominee is inevitable, even if we think it is."

So what can you expect the main points of contention--real, or manufactured--to be as the fight drags on? Levey offered a sneak peak.

"When [Kagan] was Dean of Harvard Law School she kicked the military off campus because she felt that the don't ask don't tell policy was discriminatory to gay folks," Levey instructed. That episode will likely become the central focus of Republican opposition to Kagan

"I also think one issue that's going to be closely connected this summer to the Supreme Court vacancy is the Constitutionality of Obamacare, specifically the individual mandate," Levey predicted. "Senators are going to ask about it. The media's going to speculate about how the nominee would vote on it. I certainly plan to raise it."

Don't be surprised, either, if Republicans figure out new and inventive ways to use Kagan to highlight what they view as Obama's political vulnerabilities. For instance, Levey recommended that if Obama's nominee is not a military veteran, Republicans should cite that fact as evidence that Obama is weak on national security.

 

Like this is a new thing that the parties do? Every party opposite of the current President always fights to delay the nomination. I find it laughable that articles like this are around.

also

Is there a rule against having pretty women on the supreme court or is it just that women who practice law are not attractive?

 

well its like lady truck drivers, its some pretty ones out there, its just hard as heck to find them

 

I just don't understand how they couldn't find a judge or litigator who argues frequently to the court instead of an academic. She has NEVER been a judge and they are appointing her to the most powerful court in the nation?

 

Uh, she's the Solicitor General of the United States.....granted only since last year, but I think she probably knows her way around the building a bit....