Obama should have forced RBG to retire in 2013. He should have kept bugging her about retiring until she gave up and did so.
Wouldn't it be seen as an affront, if a prez tries to push a SCOTUS justice into retirement? Of course, Mr. Trump wouldn't care, but such a norm breaking would backfire against a traditional prez.
RBG made a huge misscalculation because she anticipated HRC, who recommended her appointment to her husband, would be elected in 2016 and replace her.
What an idiot she was to take such a huge risk, even without the benefit of hindsight Hillary was not inevitable enough to be worth risking a 6-3 Court.
She seemed on the grandiose side and didn't really have many people who could level with her -- Nina Totenberg said it was simply not a topic people close to her felt comfortable discussing.
Right after she died Justice Breyer gave an interview where he told two anecdotes that were meant to be nice little stories about RBG. One was when he had a new granchild she sent the infant a shirt saying "Future RBG Clerk." The second was for his birthday she sent a card with her image on it saying, "I order you to have a happy birthday." These are both innocent, but illustrate, to me, that she bought eventually bought into her own hype and was fairly self-centered.
An 81 year old pancreatic cancer survivor with a Democratic Senate and President (2014) and she decides to hang on, even though she was quite partisan/ideological?
