Americans don't give a damn whether the next Supreme Court appointment goes to a woman/black/Hispanic.

A Gallup poll.

ADDED: Rick Hansen predicts that Obama will pick 7th Circuit judge Diane Wood. Read his 5-point analysis at the link. Read the whole thing, but here's #5:

The president is likely to resist the temptation to go bold. Going bold is choosing someone like Pam Karlan, who is brilliant and outspoken. Pam hasn't trimmed her sails in what she's said, and there would be plenty of those YouTube moments to be dissected by 24-hour cable news and a Senate Judiciary minority led by Senator Sessions. As with Sotomayor, Karlan likely could be confirmed to the Court with a big push by the President. This would be the nomination progressives would love. But my thinking is the president wants to preserve some of his capital for everything else, and with Wood he gets an excellent choice at very little cost.

Hansen links to this YouTube clip of Karlan, which I think deserves any effort it might take to vigorously defend: