Obama is said to be considering Republican governor Brian Sandoval as a nominee for the Supreme Court. Why would Obama do that? Why not wait until after Hillary gets wins the election and then nominate a real liberal in consultation with her?

Well Obama is a lot smarter than Republican Obama-haters give him credit for. He’s smart and he also has very good political instincts: certainly much better political instincts than the Republicans he beat out to get the job, McCain and Romney. Obviously, Obama’s political instincts are telling him that Hillary Clinton is likely to be the Democratic nominee and that she’s likely to lose in November to Donald Trump. And that this would happen even if Obama nominated a liberal to the Supreme Court and the Democrats attempted to milk the issue of obstructionist Republicans preventing the Supreme Court from being able to go about its important work with a full staff of justices.

Thus Obama believes he’s better off appointing Republican governor Brian Sandoval who, based on this NRO article, appears to be a David Souter type of Republican.