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"Would I like to be on the Supreme Court? You bet I would. But not enough to have trimmed my sails for half a lifetime."

Said Stanford lawprof Pam Karlan, who doesn't expect to get the nomination. (Insiders listed the final 4 as: Sonia Sotomayor, Diane P. Wood, Elena Kagan, and Janet Napolitano.)

The link is to a NYT article about how Obama is not headed toward picking someone who will "excite the left."

While it is possible Mr. Obama has a surprise in the works, those on this list are cut from molds similar to those of the two Clinton appointees, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. They are liberal on most issues that divide the court ? and surely too liberal for many Republican senators ? but have not been the outspoken leaders of the legal left that advocates crave.

?He?s not going to go in that direction,? said Bernard W. Nussbaum, who was Mr. Clinton?s first White House counsel and oversaw Justice Ginsburg?s appointment. ?I don?t think that he?s worried about the left. I think he?s doing the same thing we did.?

The political dynamic remains the same. It's readable and strong. And Obama is like Clinton.

It's too bad that Court appointment elude the strongest, most interesting legal thinkers. The best individuals will say what Karlan meant to say: That she didn't want to spend her life adjusting what she had to say to get into the position to catch the political wind.

It's not too bad, however, that the left will be denied excitement (which would be super exciting for the right as well).

Full post as published by Althouse on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).