For conservatives, the makeup of the Supreme Court is always a consideration when voting for president, and this time it's a more important consideration than ever. The Constitution is under full assault by this administration. We need constructionists nominated to every federal judicial position in the country.
That really doesn't tell me anything.
Betting on both:
1) Scalia and/or Kennedy will retire/die in the next four years and not any time after that.
2) Liberal Romney would appoint anything like a Scalia
is a very risky bet.
Yes, GWB re-election did eventually result in two very good justices, but it also resulting in Republicans being so despised and untrusted that Dems were able to take the WH with two major congressional victories :2006 and 2008 to get much of their agenda accomplished.
That resulted in two terrible justices that Obama got with little resistance.
I can easily imagine the liberal Romney POTUS being so bad that Dems win again big in 2016. It's pretty easy to do.
Mitt Romney was a student of a real Constitutional scholar, Cleon Skousen. It is at least partly on this basis that some Republican intelligentsia can claim he is a 'conservative'. But it's very clear the Romney knows and rejects 'constructionist' views of the Constitution.
Think more Souters on the Supreme Court...