These results are interesting. To be honest, I would have thought people would have come out more in favor of Obama’s point of view. I was wrong. These results show the GOP has room to fight Obama on this and make sure he doesn’t get anybody he nominates on the Supreme Court.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Americans are just as divided as politicians over whether the Senate should consider President Barack Obama’s forthcoming nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of registered voters found that 43% preferred the Senate to vote this year on Mr. Obama’s choice to fill the unexpected opening, while 42% said the position should remain vacant until 2017, when a new president could select a replacement. The remaining 15% had no opinion. The survey found voters were split deeply along party lines, with 71% of the Democrats favoring Senate consideration of an Obama nominee and 73% of Republicans supporting no action until the next president assumes office.

This graphic displays the splits:

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More here:

Within hours of the news that Justice Scalia had died while on a trip in western Texas, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the vacancy shouldn’t be filled by Mr. Obama in his final year in office. Mr. Obama the same day said he would nominate a successor and said the Senate had a responsibility to give that person a hearing and a vote. Senate Republicans haven’t yet reached a firm conclusion on whether to hold hearings to evaluate the president’s eventual nominee.

I am not opposed to allowing hearings and giving his nominee a vote. But Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley are going to have to grill members hard to make sure the nominee gets voted down. Let’s face it, Obama is not going to nominate a “consensus” pick. He is going to choose a liberal and he’s going to act like it is a consensus choice.