Another Supreme Court Nomination for Obama?

There are indications that the 89 year old liberal justice John Paul Stevens may be preparing to retire from the Supreme Court. He would be 90 years old when the 2010 term starts in October of next year. Although he was nominated by a Republican President (Gerald Ford) he is considered to be in the liberal wing of the Supreme Court.

If Stevens does announce his intention to retire it will be interesting to see if President Obama will shed his fantasy of bipartisanship and his desire for compromise and start representing the people who elected him by nominating a LIBERAL justice. After all, President Bush did not hesitate nominating two very conservative justices in the form of Alito and Roberts.

I feel that President Obama partially failed his first litmus test by not flexing any political muscle during the healthcare debate. He essentially let the minority party frame the debate and made him come to them instead of the other way around. We destroyed the Republicans in November and have significant margins in both houses of Congress, correct? I thought so, but the way things have gone on healthcare you would never know it. If Obama does not want to completely alienate his base and appear weak, I believe he will need to show that he is willing to take on the Republicans from a position of strength and fight for what he believes and nominate a highly-qualified LIBERAL justice to the Supreme Court.