With Souter Out, Who Will Obama Nominate To The Court?

Last night's big news, that Justice David Souter will be retiring from the Supreme Court has everyone talking. Although he isn't the youngest on the Court, he is certainly much younger than the eldest. Justice Stevens turns 89 this year, making him 20 years older than Souter. Whatever his reason for stepping down, the big question becomes, who will Obama pick to replace him? Although with the story not even a day old, there's already a consensus that the next justice will be a woman.

RawStory has some possible names:

Court experts have said Obama is likely to choose a woman as his first nominee. Among the possible candidates are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the administration's top courtroom lawyer who argues before the Supreme Court; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and appeals court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood.

I've personally heard of Elena Kagan and of course Gov. Granholm, but I can't say much about the other two. Whoever he ends up picking, from that list or elsewhere, the battle to get her in will be difficult to say the least. Even with the "60" in the Senate, not all those Democrats are in the liberal/progressive corner. And the forty Republicans will also be making a big stink, for the sake of stinking up the process.