Roberts was definately smoother. Alito is a lot more steak where roberts was more sizzle.
And "When did you stop beating your wife?"
NPR was talking about Alito as the hearings were about to start, and they gloomed and doomed that he'd be on the court because, among other things, he's a little rumpled looking, that New Jersey accent and background, immigrant, hardworking parents, the father got a $50 scholarship and was able to attend college, easier for the general public to identify with him than say, with Roberts. NPR had already run up the white flag before the hearings started.