President Obama criticized Senator Richard Burr, who has said that if he is re-elected and Clinton is elected president, he will try to keep her from filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court. “What, only Republican presidents get to nominate judges?” Obama asked. “Is that in the Constitution?”
Obama, as a senator, voted against John Roberts’s nomination to the Supreme Court and filibustered Samuel Alito’s. I’m sure there were theoretical circumstances under which he would have voted to confirm a George W. Bush nominee to the Supreme Court: say, if Bush had nominated Andrew Cuomo. And I’m sure that there are theoretical circumstances under which Senator Burr would change his position: if Clinton nominates Ted Cruz, for example. The only difference I can see between Obama’s stance then and Burr’s now is that Burr is being a little more honest about his.