Chapters 2-4, Summary and Analysis

Obama would ultimately vote against Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court, one of twenty-two in the Senate, though largely for electoral reasons. Yet in his speech on the Senate floor, he claimed that while Roberts was qualified, he used his skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak, even though the next day he defended his colleagues who voted yes. He stressed his long-held view that progressive causes were best advanced in the ballot box. And yet when Alito's nomination came up, Obama easily voted no.

Turning to Roberts, his career path was one of quiet ascendancy, grand accomplishments without drawing attention to himself. He had celebrated Rehnquist's attempt to move the SCOTUS to the right, away from giving government the power to create new individual rights and so, perhaps, to take them away. He had...