Actually, I do NOT agree, for reasons I’ll explain. Neither should you.

This meme has gotten a real workout over the past few weeks as a Hillary talking point. The implication is that if the Senate won’t confirm Obama’s pick for SCOTUS as a replacement for Antonin Scalia, we should all vote for HRC because she’ll put Obama in the position.

*sigh*

One of the problems I encounter in my blogging is that I’m reading from a completely different take on the US from some of my contemporaries. I think that some of the situations President Obama has found himself in were not of his making. But I need to make it very clear that IMHO, Obama should NOT be given a Supreme Court seat. The issues:

• Obama has continued the Bush-era policies of surveillance and harassment of political enemies of government policies, and expanded NSA surveillance;
• Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) complete with article 1021, an unconstitutional attack on Habeas Corpus. Under 1021, journalists and protesters could be detained by the military without charge. You might read up on Tangerine Bolen (I interviewed her on my old radio show) and her lawsuit against the government over the NDAA. Speaking of which;
• Obama’s administration has gone ballistic over the whistle-blowers who have come forward with information about government malfeasance. Instead of addressing the issues brought to light by Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond, Edward Snowden and John Kiriakou (who leaked info about CIA torture), Obama went hammer-and-tongs after the leakers, as if the leaks (and not the misconduct) was the sole problem the US faced vis-a-vis our actions abroad. His DOJ has been using the antiquated Espionage act in ways that have riled the legal community.Even Amnesty International has weighed in. While many other US presidents have run afoul of AI, none of them were being touted as SCOTUS material.
• Most important to me: per Wikileaks, Obama’s administration browbeat the government of Spain into preventing its judiciary from pursuing war crimes charges against George W Bush and his administration (especially Richard Cheney). In so doing, Obama was in violation of treaties we have signed with regard to the Nuremberg Charter and other agreements the US championed after WWII. 

PS: interesting debate question for HRC. You were the Secretary of State for Obama. Do you support his protection of the perpetrators of war crimes of the Bush administration?

People like Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame have compared Obama’s conduct UNFAVORABLY to that of Richard Nixon. Ellsberg faced prison and worse when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, but he has decried the far more authoritarian system that faces today’s potential whistleblowers. It’s time to stop attempting to polish the halo bestowed on Obama by Clinton, who desperately needs the liberal part of the electorate to look upon Barack Obama’s actions through the rosiest of glasses. Obama should not be anybody’s idea of a suitable candidate for the US Supreme Court.