Why Obama wants Sotomayor

Since the Supreme Court decision a couple of days ago with reference to racial discrimination in the case of the New Haven, Conn., firefighters, many usually shrewd observers have noted what a strong indicator the decision is that Sonia Sotomayor simply lacks the qualifications to make sound judgments. Thomas Sowell, for example, said today: "For the fourth time in six cases, the Supreme Court of the United States has reversed a decision for which Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. If this nominee were a white male, would this not raise questions about whether he should be elevated to a court that has found his previous decisions wrong two-thirds of the times when those decisions have been reviewed?"

Sowell and the others are missing the point. It's precisely because Sotomayor is being reversed again and again that her sponsor-in-chief, Barack Obama, wants her on the high court. He wants to change the Supreme Court just as radically, and as fast, as he's trying to change everything else. He thinks the court, especially the way it voted Monday, is dead wrong, and he wants to hurry Sotomayor onto the bench so that chances of a 5-4 vote the other way are enhanced. The argument that Sotomayor has been overturned two-thirds of the time is exactly why Obama and his friends want her so badly.