I just finished listening to an excellent C-SPAN interview in their series America and the Courts. The hour-long interview with Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter Greg Stohr explored the differing impact that the two candidates would have on the Court should they become President. It often includes a quote from the candidate directly as a jumping off point for a new segment of the interview, so it stays very close to the real world; there’s no hyperbole here. Stohr has a good feel for how McCain and Obama differ on nominees, their view of the Court, etc., and provides good examples.

I already considered the Supreme Court nomination issue one of my main deciding points for this election, but if I hadn’t, this would be great fodder for the decision-making process. Supreme Court nominations affect the country for generations; it’s one of the longest-living legacies a President has. Tax policy, executive orders, etc., can be changed by the next President…but they can’t remove a Justice (well, anything like as easily, anyway). Something to think about, IMO.

The video is available for now as a RealVideo link (teh ick) off of the C-SPAN link above, but the audio was in the C-SPAN podcast of the week feed, and so is directly available (again, for the time being) here.