The GOP has done crap with Supreme Court nominations in the near past.
Don't expect miracles from them. It's inappropriate and childish to expect they will do better this time around.
Your concern is noted and completely discounted based on GOP history.
/johnny
You'll get no dispute with me on that.
Democrats are very good at picking reliably liberal Supreme Court Justices. Republicans historically bat about 50/50.
George W. Bush gave us Alito (a fairly reliable conservative) and Roberts (a disappointing moderate working his way to liberal). George H.W. Bush gave us Clarence Thomas (a reliable conservative) and David Souter (a liberal). Reagan gave us Scalia (a reliable conservative), O'Connor (a moderate) and Kennedy (a moderate sometimes and a liberal other times, mostly depending on whether homosexual rights are at issue).
The problem began in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Roosevelt finally managed to pack the court with socialists intent on expanding the federal government. The problem became permanent in the mid 1960s with the Abington School District v. Schempp case (in which the Court decided that the First Amendment prohibits reading the bible in school) and the Griswold v. Connecticut case (in which the Court decided to stop pretending to even read the Constitution and instead to rely on emanations and penumbra).
So now, the Constitution says whatever the hell 5 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices say it says. A lot of our fundamental rights, including the 2nd Amendment, are now hanging by a thread of 5 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices.
My point is that if Hillary gets elected, there is no chance whatsoever that Scalia or Kennedy will be replaced with anyone other than a hard core leftist who will be legislating from the bench for the next 30 years. If Cruz or Walker (or maybe Rubio) gets elected, then we have at least a 50/50 chance.
Ruth Buzzie Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer will also be in their 80s in 2016, so the next president could replace them as well, though my money is on them both retiring next year so Obama can replace them.
If they don't retire before Obama leaves and Hillary replaces them, it will just mean two old hard core leftists will be replaced with two young hard core leftists. That is bad, but would not shift the current balance of the Court. If Cruz gets to replace them along with Scalia and Kennedy, then there is at least a 50/50 chance of a solid conservative majority on the Court for the next generation.