"..the deference that Sen. Obama failed to show."

Deference? Senators should show deference? I thought they should show intelligent reasoning and make their best case for or against the qualifications of a nominee....like the last line of the ??quotation??...(those quotation marks need to BE there to clarify the line between your comments and the text.)
If Obama was convinced a Bush appointee would not be a fair & unbiased judge, he SHOULD vote against him/her.
(I am listening to the hearings right now, and I just heard Sen. Grassley trying to get Sotomayor to 'admit' that 'justice was not done' in a "takings" case, and suggesting that the judicial panel should have 'done something' to stop a community from "taking" a citizens property. She patiently explained that the case was not ABOUT 'fair'...it was about whether the law was followed and whether the citizen was 'informed' and timely with his complaint.)
   Recent rulings suggest that Obama was correct in his assessment of John Roberts' tendency to use his **undoubted** legal expertise to do as Grassley suggests and 'do something', rather than just apply the law. Sotomayor will, I think, NOT please the more...ummm... 'insistent' folks on the left who want her to 'do something' about THEIR perceived causes.