I just wanted to pass on this fact that I just found, and I'll try to analyze it later tonight. (I'm at work right now, so I need to keep it short)

In our nation's history, only two Presidents have not had the opportunity to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court. One was William Henry Harrison, who died a mere month into his administration.



The only other President not to be able to appoint any justices was Jimmy Carter.



Now as you might remember, Carter came to the White House immediately after eight years of Nixon and Ford, during which time 5(!) justices were appointed in about five years (just to give you a comparison, Clinton only appointed 2 justices over his eight years). More clearly, Nixon and Ford were essentially able to appoint an entire court (five justices can push anything through). As a result of this, and the fact that the other four justices were relatively young, Carter was unable to appoint any justices.

Coincidentally (or not), this iteration of Bush has yet to appoint a justice. It makes you think, no?

[editor's note: I'll analyze this a bit tonight, and hopefully get to the second post I wanted to write last night]