Excellent prose.
Horrible analysis.
The defeatist conclusion that Bush could not get a conservative through the Senate is weak kneed speculation.
Bush acts weak, and thus he is. Did he really think he could do this and not be portrayed by the leftist media as weak.
Regardless of who the President picked the Leftist media would've spun it somehow to make him appear either weak, divisive, elitist, or idiotic.
I agree that her nomination was a stroke of genius. The President has essentially put the Democrat SIGs in check. If they attack, as they are prone to do, they will alienate the moderates. If the Democrat reps attack, they will alienate the moderates.
We only have so much time before the 2006 elections. In fact, the election season usually begins to get underway in a couple of months. Discrediting the Left and the Democrats, while getting a nominee that the President trusts will be a conservative constructionist is genius, and none of the caterwauling on the Right by the doom and gloomers is going to change anything. And when the time comes for us to vote again, we'll have her and Roberts' records on the bench for our perusal.
Stategery... The President has apparently read and understood The Art of War. The Democrats are clumsy strategists who think that the American public is dumber than French toast. President Bush has made some tactical errors while in office, but he hasn't failed in his strategy. Not yet at least.