Biden’s Bad Bet on Race

Biden’s pledge to name a black woman—and only a black woman—to the Supreme Court is going down badly with Americans, a majority of whom are growing tired of the left’s relentless identity politics.  A new ABC News/Ipsos poll begins its report thus:

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that a plurality of Americans view the Supreme Court as motivated by partisanship, while President Joe Biden’s campaign trail vow to select a Black woman to fill a high-court vacancy without reviewing all potential candidates evokes a sharply negative reaction from voters. . .

Just over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Biden to consider “all possible nominees.” Just 23% want him to automatically follow through on his history-making commitment that the White House seems keen on seeing through. . . a majority of Democrats (54%) also prefer that Biden consider all possible nominees.

Biden has backed himself into a corner on this appointment, and can’t reverse himself now without offending the most privileged constituency in the Democratic Party. My guess is that most of the names floated so far will be confirmed without much of a fuss. But Democrats want Republicans to make a fuss. Aside from some tough questioning in Judiciary Committee hearings, I expect Republicans will keep a cool head, vote no in large numbers, but without giving Democrats a “racist” spectacle to exploit.

One potential appointment might give Democrats the spectacle they crave to motivate their base: Kamala Harris. Oh please please, Mr. Biden: pile folly on top of pandering stupidity!

There’s no good news for Biden on other issues in the poll. He’s underwater on just about everything. Despite boasts of strong 4th quarter 2021 economic growth, “only 1% of Americans view the state of the nation’s economy as ‘excellent,’ and only 23% say it’s ‘good.’ Three out of four Americans said the state of the economy was ‘not so good / poor.'”

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