Sonia Sotomayor has been heralded as a judge with a life story that should inspire all Americans and, even though she has a fairly conservative voting record in some areas, liberal activists have rallied around her nomination. A new poll, however, suggests that most Americans are neither inspired nor supportive. Only forty-seven percent of people polled by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation support Sotomayor and, more importantly, forty percent outright oppose her confirmation.
Those figures put Sotomayor in a worse position than Harriet Miers who was forced to withdraw from consideration for the Court.
It is also lower that the support for Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
Even independents are split on the nomination with forty-two percent in favor and forty-one percent against the nomination.
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All these numbers tell us is that the Republicans have done a good job in bashing the nominee without any substantive evidence that she is not qualified. However, to compare her qualifications to Harriet Miers is not equitable. The Republican party itself was torn against Miers. It was actually the Republicans who scuttled her nomination and forced Miers to withdraw.
I’ve been a fierce supporter of Sotomayor having been rallied to her cause by various groups to which I belong… I’ve written my senators and signed petitions of support. Yet, with that said, the problem that she has is that she is too “ethnic.” By that I mean people don’t like her because she “seems” almost stereotypically “Latina,” and unfortunately not in a “good way.”
In appearances, her demeanor, and even her choice of words when she’s speaking, she stands out as not part of the “old school,” and even something radically new, from a radically “new” president. Because she’s not photogenic, not a great and inspiring speaker, and not representing herself as part of the old establishment in just a “different shade of pale,” people don’t like her. It’s not so much anything that you can put your finger on, it’s just the gut reaction that people get… Maybe were getting burned out on “change.”
I for one believe she’ll dispell some of the discomfort that people are feeling during the confirmation hearings as we gain an insight to her thought process. Is Sotomayor likly to be a “Great Justice,” probably not, but a good one, I think so… That’s my “two cents worth.”
“The Senate’s Republican minority does not expect to derail Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the court, and they realize that their attack lines against her have failed to ignite public attention, or even much interest”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071201530.html
39% of Americans believe in evolution. More believe that man was created in his present form. Some believe the sun rotates around the earth. Who cares what Sotomayor’s approval ratings are?
Americans are gullible, susceptible to propaganda, willfully ignorant in some cases and on the borderline of being too stupid to have an effective democracy.
Republicans are adept at nurturing this stupidity for their own ends. The specious objections to Sotomayor are just another example of rousing the rabble.
Well–47 beats 40. I think you’ve gotten sucked into those talking points without really talking about her record. Just like the media!
I just read or heard that the numbers are in the low 30’s. As a Sct Jurist I would like to know where she is going and we know where she has been.
I heard people say we need a White Female, We Need a Mexican Male, We need another Black Male, We need an Asian.
What we need is someone to do what they say and mean what they do. The Bubble as Scott McClellan states needs to be burst. Because he said Geo the 2nd was really a nice guy, maybe so, but too stupid to run a company on his own.
Could you imagine Dick Cheney on the Sct? AT least you know what evil he is capable of.
Christopher Flournoy, amazing but oh so true. People may not want to believe in your comment but you hit the nail on the head with that one. It dis spells the notion that no two people think alike.
Those polls reflect the racism and sexism that are prevelant in this country. Many Americans can’t deal with the concept of a “wise latina” on the Supreme Court.
Swarthmore mom 1, July 13, 2009 at 9:17 am
I don’t care who gets in the Sct. I just hope that they are wise, regardless if female, mexican, asian, african, white. Too much stupidity on there already.
I like everyone until I have a reason not to. Because this is a life time/life long appointment and the removal process is extremely difficult and they can hide for years. I say what I say because I feel that it is that important.
Immoral, Anti-America
She should be be calling for obama’s arrest.
She might not turn out to be that good.I was just referring to the polls. I don’t think those people answering those polling questions care if she is strong on civil liberties. I have been sick. I think I caught something on the plane.
I may be wrong but,I think this back and forth on the nomination,is really building up to the real fight,if I can use that term.
In my humble layman opinion,its the “NEXT” nominee where all the fireworks are waiting for.
Again this is my humble opinion.
“[Poll result] is also lower that the support for Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.”
CNN is to the right and its poll is probably indicative of that. Ask a republican and you get a republican’s response, ask a democrat and you get a democrat’s response.
The concern I have about Sotomayor is that on the Supreme Court she will support the Obama administration in its efforts to block all review of purported war crimes and restoration of Constitutional civil liberties. At times this administration seems even to want to go further than the previous administration. Has anyone read any indication of how she would rule in these areas?
I had no idea that we had changed our judicial selection process into a direct democracy. While it of some passing interest that a large group of people, who do not know the SCOTUS designee, do not support her, it is even more interesting to me that they would presume the competency to evaluate her. It would be akin to me evaluating the choice for the Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Randy Macon’s point is a good one that 39% of the population believes in evolution and probably space aliens, Bigfoot, Sarah Palin, and the Easter Bunny, all of whom are unreal in one sense or another. That number appears to be about the same percentage as those who oppose her. Judging the judges of Sotomayer’s worthiness is more enlightening than parsing their unlettered opinions. To quote Jefferson, as I often do to the chagrin of some, “What has no meaning admits no explanation.”(Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Smyth, 1825. ME 16:101).
eniobob 1, July 13, 2009 at 9:40 am
I may be wrong but,I think this back and forth on the nomination,is really building up to the real fight,if I can use that term.
In my humble layman opinion,its the “NEXT” nominee where all the fireworks are waiting for.
Again this is my humble opinion.
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But then again, you sir may be correct. If you recall this has been done before.
AY:
If you notice there hasn’t been too much commenting on the “NEXT”
choice for SCOTUS,and like I say thats going to be the one!!
And I do recall as you have suggested.
Rich, I think you’ve been sucked into the conservative conspiracy line without reading any of Judge Sotomayor’s opinions. Although she is certainly qualified and is an acceptable candidate, she cannot be labeled a liberal in her judicial philosophy. The fact that the right has tried to attack her “neutrality” is frankly attributable to what Swarthmore mom has already noted, a fear that Judge Sotomayor reflects part of a demographic change that is taking over “our country.” Ignorance may be bliss to the right, but it’s a pain in the butt to the rest of us.
AY, I think you’re spot on. There will be heavy pressure to appoint a bona fide liberal the next time around. Judge Sotomayor’s appointment will not give us the type of court that I’ve been waiting for, although it’s a step in the right direction.
Mike A.,
If I am on target she is the throw a way candidate. If she can make it through the entire elimination process she might have a chance. The Democrats only have a simple majority and what is the cost of a vote?
I think and I could be eating my words but we will have another one for the same seat to be vacated by Souter.
This demonstrates once again what cowards and tactical morons the Democrats are. They sit by passively for months failing to effectively counter a character assassination campaign against a judge far more qualified than Roberts, Alito, Scalia and certainly the incompetent Thomas. And even while they left Sotomayor twist slowly in the wind the Republican campaign of hate and lies barely puts an ill-informed majority ont their side. Imagine if the pusilanimous Democrats had done anything to defend the judge?
Randy Macon is right on point.
The rampant ignorance in this Country is staggering. Among these are the Dupes, redneck vacuities, cretins, and crackpot evangelicals who most reliably vote against themselves in every cycle. The scoundrels at Fox Newstwisters Channel and in rightwinger squawk radio depend upon them for audience ratings and for their obscene compensation and wealth for spewing the plutocratic bilge.
Here’s to you Nicola and Bart. Rest forever here in our hearts. The last and final moment is yours. That agony is your triumph.
Seriously though, I don’t think it’s over for Sotomayor. She is one of the most qualified candidates to be nominated for the Supreme Court. The media is painting her in a very negative light and if not for them, I think she’d likely have a much higher approval rating among Americans. The media is great at messing up a person’s image.
What I find objectionable about Ms. Sotomayor is the implicit inference that only non-white, non-male are likely to care about fairness or an even playing field. In truth, though blacks still had to struggle in furtherance of fairness and civil rights, the struggle depended heavily on the conscience, decency and morality of many, many white men in power who willingly shared it and helped fight for legislation to support those goals. As a Democrat, I’m beginning to believe that the legacy of the Obama administration may be one of setting race relations back several years if not decades and that the cause will be an overweening tone deafness, the likes of which was (fairly) attributed to George W. Bush…but will be just as fairly applied to Obaba.
What a pity that the first non-white (as it were) president will be, I believe, an ineffective, one-term president, clearly incapable of understanding macroeconomics and already having lost the respect of many of the world leaders. Being from Chicago and having seen the post-Alinsky result of Alinsky-style “community organizing”, I’m at a loss to understand how the Obama administration would want to emulate that!
Lisa C,
I think the problem here is the outmoded framing of the nomination entirely with the judge’s ethnicity and gender. The Republicans are deftly exploiting the shallow, symbolic factors related to Sotomayor’s nomination. Those factors really should be beside the point. If the public discussion were more honest and open paricipants would all recongize and agree that having more diversity among judges opens the judicial system up to being more responsive and even handed than if we had a purely homogeneous judiciary. It’s just a fact of human nature that who we are can have an important impact on how we view and evaluate situations and circumstances. If the judiciary is so utterly dominated by one kind of viewpoint then it naturally has limitations as a result. This would be true no matter what particular class or group dominated. It would be just as detrimental if all judges or the vast preponderance were black males or black females or hispanic females, etc… The fact that Sotomayor is hispanic and female should only be a secondary factor IMHO because by any measure she is a very capable judge and that is really what is important. My own view is she is being put in a position that I’m sure she dislikes by focusing on her demographics as though those factors alone define her instead of her substance. Wouldn’t human beings be a sorry lot if the only things that shaped our viewpoint and intellect were the circumstances to which we were born? I cannot wait for the day when the symbolic gender, ethnicity, race and other such factors are of no consequence and we only focus on what kind of judge the nominees really are.