Several conservative observers of the court said they interpreted those remarks as code for Mr. Obama’s intention to select "liberal activist judges."

For instance, Neomi Rao at George Mason University Law School says: “When I hear about a judge who rules on the basis of empathy, I think of an activist judge.” That's funny. When I hear about a judge who has no empathy for ordinary people, I think of a judge who will be a pro-business activist, the kind who will look for any excuse to rule against an employee in a discrimination suit or a victim in a civil rights suit. The kind of activist judge that President Bush, his father, and President Reagan dumped onto the judicial bench for 20 of the last 28 years.

The Supreme Court is important but it hears a handful of cases each year. Equally important are all the lower court judges who preside over trials and the first appeal. The public gives little notice to judicial appointments (other than the Supreme Court) and is likely to pay scant attention to the conservative aversion to compassion as a judicial quality. When people are losing their houses, their jobs, and their health insurance, a bit of compassion doesn't seem like a bad thing. This just isn't a good year for the conservative hatred of all things kind to take root.