Obama Gets It Right With Sotomayor Selection

[babylonsister]

Obama Gets It Right With Sotomayor Selection
By Richard L. Connor, CQ Guest Columnist



Gender matters. Race matters. So does empathy.

Personally, I’d feel more comfortable standing before a judge considered to be empathetic.

The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to succeed Justice David H. Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court says good things about how Americans think and who we consider to be acceptable in high office.

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The nation’s highest court should be representative of the people of this country.

Women over 18 years of age today in this country make up over 50 percent of the population. Although it was nine years ago, the census reported that just under 107 million women lived here versus just under 98 million men.

Statistics from as recently as 2005 list almost 15 percent of the country as being of Hispanic/Latino descent.

There are nine justices on the Supreme Court. Only one is a woman and none are of Hispanic/Latino descent.

Life experiences matter as well. Judge Sotomayor, born of Puerto Rican parents, grew up in New York City in an environment that was at best a struggle. She overcame odds to study at Princeton for her undergraduate degree and then go to Yale Law.

Overcoming obstacles is a good background for a leader. It proves that this is a land of opportunity. It gives credence to the American Dream and our ideal of being a country where you can make it if you try hard enough.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000003131245

[ClarkUSA]

1. Nice op-ed, but she went to Yale Law, not Harvard.

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks-that was sloppy.

I edited it; hope the writer doesn't mind.

[ClarkUSA]

3. lol

You should drop him a note. ;)