That’s a good initial list of possible McCain nominees to the Supreme Court, Gerry. I notice, though, that all your possibles are sitting judges, with the exception of Paul Clement, who also comes out of a public service background. On the Democratic side, on the other hand, some of the most frequently mentioned people are academics, like Harold Koh of Yale (taken down a peg by Ed Whelan here and here), or Cass Sunstein or Laurence Tribe of Harvard.

What are we to make of this? Is there a dearth of credible Democratic talent among sitting judges? Or a dearth of credible Republican talent among law professors? And if we looked to the law schools, whom would we mention as possible Supreme Court nominees in a McCain administration?