The “I will put a black woman on the Supreme Court” is one of the worst campaign pledges of all time because it is so incredibly undermining to the candidate pool and especially the eventual candidate. It makes clear that even if you find someone impeccably qualified that they are, according to your own statement, the best qualified black woman for the job. It is just an insane self-own. It is such a disservice to the eventual nominee and will make the confirmation hearings so much more awful than if he hadn’t said that.
I get the point, but I don’t agree with it. Anyone who thinks about the reality of the situation for more than 30 seconds is going to appreciate that there are dozens if not hundreds of candidates who could be called “the most qualified.” Let’s also be cognizant that any super old white guy saying they’re focused on hiring the most qualified candidate can easily be perceived as a dog whistle which I’m sure Biden wanted to avoid.
Do you feel the same way about employers outwardly placing an emphasis on recruiting diverse candidates? Cause that is for sure happening at like every large employer.
No, I think he absolutely should have considered the identity of the candidate as a consideration, but he should not explicitly say that he is starting with a limited pool of candidates to the exclusion of all others on demographic lines. It just immediately undermines the person who gets it, particularly when they have to go under hostile, public, questioning to get the job and will no doubt be asked about a statement they didn’t even make and a process that they did not control.
I think the bullshit dance around whether or not the nominee will uphold or strike down Roe or other major decisions is silly because a president would be insane not to have a very solid idea about how the nominee will rule and the Supreme Court is, despite Spracne’s protestations, fundamentally a political body with elected representatives for each political party placed there to represent their respective ideologies.
But the reason that people bullshit about all that and pretend, is to make it easy for the nominee to breeze through the confirmation and be able to honestly say that they did not disclose how they would rule on decisions to the president, not make any assurances, and that they would carefully consider each issue before them etc.
Biden blew up all pretense. In most cases I would respect it, but in this instance I happen to pity the person that has to wear his eff up for him through no fault of their own.
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