He can’t force her out if she absolutely refuses to go, but instead of waiting till after she dies to start the narrative about how she’s ruined the country for the next 30 years, you could start that while she’s still alive so she can choose whether to stay in power and ruin her legacy, or be the hero who saves the country while getting paid millions by Obama cronies to take some cushy no show job and spend the last few months of her life in luxury. Does she have kids or something she can leave it all to?
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What if she waits until after the Supreme Court announces its decisions in 2016?
The problem is that she needed to go before the 2011 Senate was seated. She probably was still ok then. Once it was seated, if she left it wouldn’t have been filled, just like what happened with the ‘Garland’ thing. She would have had a contingency to not leave until one was sat, but that just meant the same thing would have happened.
LBJ straight up forced out two Justices just so he could get his preferred guys in there. They weren’t old - Goldberg was in his mid-50s! - or particularly willing either. And they didn’t even have drones back then.
I didn’t realize that LBJ nominated Ramsey Clark to be AG to force his father off the court so he could nominate his close, personal friend Thurgood Marshall.
Yes and RBG also had a daughter who is a law scholar who has in her 50s at the time. So there is an option right there with well known precedent - no need to reinvent the wheel! Hell he could just have offered up the seat to her, couldn’t hurt to try.
I’m willing to believe RBG desperately wanted a woman to nominate her replacement and wasn’t going to budge off that.
My point is less that Obama should have or could have pushed her off the court so much that there are ways to get things done if you know how power works and how to impose your will. Democrats haven’t had a really capable person in that regard as president in 60 years. Is there any evidence that Obama was all that invested in getting his people in there? My guess is that he didn’t really care all that much, but I’m no expert.
So okay, again the question is what exactly you want Obama to have done. Black-bag kidnap her dog?
You might remember that didn’t exactly work out for LBJ
Obama probably had the most political capital of any president in history until Trump came along. He squandered it plain and simple. Preferred to compromise and be everybody’s friend rather than jam an agenda thru
Presidents have incredible sway when motivated and know how to get things done. Do you also think Biden was powerless to have forced Manchin’s hand into going along with his Build Back Better Act? I say bullshit. Dems are just too weak to get things done. They play T-ball while Republicans play MLB caliber baseball
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?. I genuinely don’t know what you mean. You think Obama got more done than LBJ?
You literally don’t understand political capital if you think this.
I’m saying LBJ was so unpopular he didn’t run for re-election. He did great things and it destroyed him. He used up every bit of his political capital and then also escalated Vietnam. He knew he effed up with that.
Are you saying Obama didn’t have political capital in '08 and again in 2012?? 
How old were you then? I seem to remember you being under 30. The Dems should have had generational advantages after 2006 and they evaporated in 2010 because of both the financial bailout and the ACA which opponents felt was rammed through in reconciliation.
Mitch’s only mission was making Obama a one term president. By 2012 Obama couldn’t do shit and was considered the most Executive Order using President before Trump. He used up all his capital early in his first term. He had very little in his second and the SC used his victory as proof racism was over and began gutting the VRA right after the election. Even before that, Citizens United was put in after his first election. You have no idea what kind of uphill battles he faced especially as the first Black president who was practically impeached for…wearing a tan suit and putting his feet up on the Resolute desk. I think he was weak in a lot of ways but he still did a whole lot that has positively impacted a lot of lives. He didn’t leave any capital behind.
I was in middle school and his victory was a big deal. It’s what got me interested in politics. I remember my dad being pissed because he wasn’t using his mandate forcefully enough. I’m pretty sure he had a ton of political capital at some point. A president can always apply pressure within his own party. Could have forced RBG out kicking and screaming against her will? Probably not, but he sure as hell could’ve tried harder than he did. He would’ve been doing her a favor because I don’t care how great her accomplishments were, her legacy is shit now afaic
I am once again reminding everyone that the Ds controlled 55 Senate seats in 2013 when Barry was begging RBG on his hands and knees to retire. Also, that was the year when they nuked the judicial filibuster to fill the 3 vacancies on the DC circuit of appeals that the Rs were stonewalling on to take it from 4-4 to the 7-4 D split we have to this day. Cocaine Mitch would’ve been powerless to stop any replacement.
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They still kept 60 votes for SC nominees then.
Yeah but if you think they weren’t gonna nuke that the second they needed to I don’t know what to tell you.