Anyone who has doubts about Sotomayor will soon be branded “racist” and “sexist”.
Sotomayer: I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
The trick would be to open up a full, riling up, national conversation about affirmative action while under the cover of discussing the issues around her nomination. Don’t make it come off as a personal attack—in fact use excess caution in expanding it out to a philosophical Constitutional debate—and bring the real question of equal rights under the law into the national dialogue.