NBC News Article Blog Post- Vivi

1) The definition of a consensus, in political terms, is by definition, "a group discussion where everyone's opinions are heard and understood, and a solution is created that respects those opinions. It is not what everyone agrees to. It's the best solution that the group can come up with at the given time". The Supreme Court vacancy, the result of Justice Scalia's passing, comes at an unfortunate time- a time where Obama is forced to make a very quick nomination. The time constraint also gives way to the opposing party (Republicans, in this case) to try and block the nomination considering Obama would appoint someone generally liberal, who would rule against the republican party ideals. A consensus of a new Supreme Court Judge, with Obama leaving office rather soon, is a very difficult goal to achieve considering Scalia was one of the most conservative figures in American Politics for decades.  Republicans will continue to try to block the nomination of a liberal judge, and democrats will continue to push to have their beliefs represented. A consensus is ideal for this situation, but I personally feel as if the nomination will either pass and be implemented or not go anywhere at all.
2) The power that Obama holds in the confirmation of the new Supreme Court is that he gets to initially choose the nominee for the potential Supreme Court judge. However, if the Senate does not confirm this, it is very difficult to get this nomination to go through. The new Congress begins work on Jan 3 while Obama stays in office until the 20th, so if the old Senate doesn't approve it, Obama can use those 17 remaining days to try and turn his nominations luck around. However, after Obama casts his nomination he generally has no power over how it goes other than trying to advocate and convince other members of congress to help him.
3) A "lame duck" president is one who is in power who suddenly is in very little power left. Obama, who was once one of the presidents with the highest approval ranking ever in the history of the United States has virtually lost all of his power. He has about a year left, which politically speaking, is not very much. Legislation, appointments, and other major political changes normally take quite a lot of time. However, even though Obama doesn’t have a ton of time left, his well-respected persona makes him less of a “lame duck”. People on both sides of the aisles are willing to cooperate with Obama under these time constraints due to the ways in which he behaved in the past which were mannerisms that included integrity, politeness, compassion, and bipartisanship. I think personally that his charisma and the legacy he has made for himself in the past years of his two terms will be enough ground to help him hold some sort of power in his last days in the oval office. With this being said, I think he will still leave office with very little power, but instead will leave with immense amounts of respect from members from both ends of the aisle. Obama’s cabinet has advised him well for many years and to an extent the cabinet is to thank for Obama’s soon to be smooth exit out of office.