Kagan = Obama

I find it hard to disagree with Glenn Greenwald's analysis regarding the choice of Elena Kagan to replace Justice Stevens. Regardless of whether one's position on the appropriateness of the choice, as Greenwald argues, Kagan and President Obama have a lot in common that satisfies professional Democratic politicians. Here is a core passage from Greenwald's article:

The New York Times this morning reports that "Mr. Obama effectively framed the choice so that he could seemingly take the middle road by picking Ms. Kagan, who correctly or not was viewed as ideologically between Judge Wood on the left and Judge Garland in the center." That's consummate Barack Obama. The Right appoints people like John Roberts and Sam Alito, with long and clear records of what they believe because they're eager to publicly defend their judicial philosophy and have the Court reflect their values. Beltway Democrats do the opposite: the last thing they want is to defend what progressives have always claimed is their worldview, either because they fear the debate or because they don't really believe those things, so the path that enables them to avoid confrontation of ideas is always the most attractive, even if it risks moving the Court to the Right.

 Great points.