The root of Obama's Sotomayor Problem is this: Having decided for political reasons that he wanted a female Hispanic who was liberal on affirmative action and not too old and had plausible credentials, Obama then ran into a reality that is unpleasant but was logically inevitable: There just aren't that many Wise Latinas (whether self-proclaimed or not) out there. After all, if there were, then they wouldn't need affirmative action to avoid the "cultural biases" that cause disparate impact, now would they? If there were lots and lots of very smart Latinas, then they wouldn't be an aggrieved interest group demanding that the Supreme Court continue to protect their special legal privileges.

So, that left Obama with exactly one name: Sonia Sotomayor, Esq.

But, it turns out, she doesn't have the kind of oily personality that allowed Obama to slip-slide through a 20 month Presidential campaign with only a few brief snags during the Rev. Wright contretemps. Nor, does being a Puerto Rican give her the kind of anti-skepticism race card Kryptonite that Obama's claim to being an African American gave him. Finally, in the worst bit of bad luck, she had gotten the Ricci case, which puts the issue of affirmative action on the kind of personality basis that average Americans can understand.

Of course, I presume, she'll wind up on the Supreme Court anyway, but it has been a bit of an eye-opener for the naive.