Full Context #2: The Full Video of Sotomayor’s 2005 Duke Appearance

This “full context” rationalizing is little more than a full frontal assault on common sense. Whenever the left finds itself between a rock and a hard place, it drags out the venerable “context” defense. And when it gets really uncomfortable, we are treated to a torturous examination of two letter words, as in “it all depends on what you mean by ‘is’”.

None of this matters to conservatives ready to use anything to destroy Sotomayor.

Well, there’s 37 minutes of my life I’ll never have back. There was no additional context that changes the meaning of what she said in any way from the short snippet we’ve already heard.
I’m beginning to think this White House thinks we’re all like members of congress….you know….not really the legislation before voting on it. They should realize people are going to read their Stimulus Booklet and call them out on their exaggerations. They should realize people are going to watch this video and then say to themselves, “WTH? That didn’t change anything.” Nothing but spin.

If someone is has an agenda you disagree with, of course you hope they fail. Is fail to harsh? What about I hope he is unsuccessful?

Well, why still is nobody bringing up the fact that Justice Alito said his families immigration affects his decisions in immigration cases and Justice Scalia said himself laws are made on the bench. Sotomayor said ” I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires.” What more can you ask of a judge in the highest court in the land.

Describing one as having empathy as a personal characteristic is not the same as saying you are seeking someone who will use it when making Supreme Court decisions.

Did Justice Alito say he hoped his life experiences would mean he would make better decisions than say, a white woman, or latino woman?

Jennifer7 – No and neither did Sotomayor.
Don’t forget that “wise” men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society.

“I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation,” Obama said. “I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.”

jennifert7: So both Obama and Bush thought empathy a positive trait to the same degree, yet you only condemn Obama for it. How surprising. And what about Alito, whose immigrant status admittedly impacts his judging?
“when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position.”

jennifert7:”Your straw man arguments are tiresome. ”
Wow, what a rebuttal to my factual and cited response.

The ‘concern’ about Judge Sotomayor is weak and blown out of proportion, and this will become perfectly clear when she is confirmed by the Congress, despite the hand wringing of people here with their own political agenda.
The trouble is – when your cry ‘wolf’ over everything President Obama does . .. the political agenda shows through and the words become noise.