Obama to name Kagan

I'll let others dig into the qualifications and confirmation of the new Supreme Court nominee.

My question is, how does an election summer Supreme Court nomination process play out?

Is it harder or easier to get the votes with Republicans looking away from their base and back towards the center? There will certainly be a huge amount of individual grandstanding, but I'm guessing the Republican leadership will probably ask for a softer tone to reach towards independents, women, and the geography outside the south.

This is going to be particularly high stakes, so it will be interesting to watch the multiple pulls.