The premise here seems to be that Presidential choices for the Supreme Court automatically become Justices. I blame the Dems for Roberts and Alito. It's the get along attitude of the Democrats that led to the current make-up of the Court. If McCain and Bush weren't such atrocious human beings what but "voting against them" would the Dems have to hold up as principles worth voting for? Make no mistake I'm not voting for Obama but rather against McCain. If McCain were to win maybe the Dems could remember how to "Bork."

Levity is right. Roberts and Alito should have been Borked. There must have been Anita Hill, pubic hair stuff somewhere in their past.

I wish I had a nickel for every time a "strict constructionist" said read the constitution, there's no right to an abortion in there. Yeah, well, so what, there are more important things to me than what a bunch of slave holders thought in the 1700's. If we don't hold the supreme court, the wing nuts are going to overturn Roe and push us all back to the 50's. I can hear them now, orphanages can be built to hold all the kids who aren't aborted. Right. What are they going to do when the kids grow up and there aren't any jobs thanks to Bush and Cheney?

More extremes in The Supreme.

The end of the American Empire is near

Get rid of Roe v Wade and let the Republicans find an honest wedge issue.

Isn't it about time?

Make them deal with the reality of trying to roll back 40 years of sanity. Then it becomes a wedge issue WITHIN the Republican party.

As I consider Souter to have been one of the most intellectually honest and least ideological justices of the past two decades, I would in one sense regret his retirement - yet at the same time it would also rather nice to see a justice retiring before age and infirmity left him (or her) no choice. There is good reason why the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment; but it would better if in practice Justices did not take that quite so literally.

I certainly understand justices hanging on in the hope that a future president will be more likely to appoint a successor more to the retiring justice's liking; in the highly politicized Supreme Court of today, that is really unavoidable. But there are ample examples where clinging to the Bench worked out quite badly, or example Thurgood Marshall's stubborn refusal to resign during the Carter administration. That would have spared the court and the nation the Clarence Thomas appointment.

Assuming eight years of Obama, Roberts, Alito or Thomas will surly stay firmly put, as likely will Scalia. But if we are fortunate enough to see the rabid right wing start to fade into well-deserved irrelevancy and a rather less polaraized political climate develop, Kennedy might be ther first to follow the (rumored) Souter retirement example.

Why is your title so defeatist?

Are you sure that McCain will steal this election just like Bush did in 2000?

McCain is not an underdog who is struggling against a rich banker.

McCain IS THE rich man here, who's struggling to overcome his own stupidity, fascist views and idiocracy to defeat a candidate who the world appreciates and americans love by a factor of 2:1

McCain may be a media's darling since he is well-connected and rich and who practised polygamy, unlike a black, middle-class fresher.

Stop publishing articles that "possibly" portray McCain would win.

He SHOULD NOT.

The first action he would take is to hand over Treasury keys to JP Morgan's CEO so that they could avoid bankruptcy by siphoning ALL our tax money to JPM and other banks, such that citizens would be left eating cardboards for lunch.

It is stupid authors and editors like you who bring down the press with your dumb articles.

One more article like this, and am canceling my Salon subscription.

You're right about Justice Souter. Country owes him big thanks for standing up for Roe, against the wing nuts who appointed him.

A guy wrote a book called freakonomics where he shows how much more crime and social problems we would have if there weren't legalized abortion all those years. No doubt, the wing nuts will say hey, one of those unaborted kids might have grown up to be the next Charles Dickens or something. Yeah, well, we've got plenty of Dickens on the shelves of the library. I'm glad we don't have the crime problem we used to in this country.

Words matter. They matter! And "...tilt the Supreme Court" is about as irresponsible use of them as I've seen since George Bush last spoke.

There will be at least three SCOTUS appointments during the next several years. Vote McCain and they will all be "originalists", which means interpreting the Constitution in any way that satisfies the moronic ravings of the bigoted, sexist, homophobic, Christ-pandering religious right.

McCain won't tilt the Supreme Court. He'll push it over the edge of space, and the edge of time. It'll be decades before it regains its balance. Indeed, given the pernicious intrusion of Christianity into the affairs of state, it may never regain its balance.

Words matter. They matter!

Bush neutered the SC. He ignores it. And they don't have any enforcement power. McCain or Obama would be better served cutting the legs out from the SC and leaving it to the silly hot button issues no one has an interest in being resolved.

In preparation for a run to the White House, Obama wrote a book about HIMSELF, his mom and dad. He was also going broke - OVERSPENDING. Michelle Obama (quote) "Before Barack wrote the book, we could barely pay for the ballet lessons".

Now - Obama wrote his book. Wouldn't it be nice if he had left a trail of what he BELEIVES in?

TO BELIEVE HIM - HE SAT DEAF DUMB AND BLIND IN THE RABID RACIST CHURCH FOR TWENTY YEARS.

Oh, let's BELIEVE everything he has to say.

He's a rotten Chicago politician who held his Presidential send off party at a bombers house and was bankrolled by a convicted political criminal.

Oh yea - let's give this guy our trust, our tax dollars and our military.

He has no experience in any of them. HE HAS NO RESUME. HE IS A DRESSED UP STREET HOODWINKER.