Gov. Kasich thinks it's "kind of cool" for the people "to have sort of an indirect vote on who's going to be a Supreme Court justice."

On "Meet the Press" today, Chuck Todd pushed Ted Cruz about the GOP plan not even to "bother" considering an Obama nominee for the now-empty Scalia seat on the Court. Looking at the problem not from the perspective of the power struggle between the President and the Senate, Kasich stressed the role of the people:

GOV. JOHN KASICH: But, you know, I just think at a time when the country is so divided, it would just be great if the president didn't send somebody forward and we had an election. And then everybody would be clear about what they want in the next Supreme Court justice. 

Todd taunted him: But you could end up with a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President and then you'd get an even "more liberal justice than what President Obama might provide." Kasich stuck to his love of democracy:

GOV. JOHN KASICH: Well, but that's life. I mean, you know, then the people actually have had some say. It's really kind of a unique thing when you think about it, Chuck. It's unique to say that the public itself is going to have sort of an indirect vote on who's going to be a Supreme Court justice. I think that's kind of cool. 

Yeah, it is kind of cool. Scalia's seat is the 5th vote to be added to the liberal 4 or the conservative 4. It's cool to have a vote on precisely that.

But, as Kristen Soltis Anderson said on "Fox News Sunday":

Only 20 percent of Americans say that they think that the Supreme Court is too conservative right now... [Y]ou have 37 percent of Americans who think the court is already too liberal, in general I think conservatives are excited about having this battle moving into November.  

A question for liberals is: Why don't you want to ask the people what we want? I can think of a few answers. #1 is: We're afraid the people want to preserve the existing balance, not suddenly to shift to the left. And conservatives should needle them with that: You don't want to hear what the people want, because you know they don't want a more liberal Court.

But there are other reasons: #2: Why should liberals wait to get what they want through an election when they see a way to get what they want now? #3: The people don't really understand the workings of the Court and don't know what they really want, not like the experts, the liberal elite. #4: Constitutional law is not about the transitory preferences measured in elections but enduring values and principles enshrined in a venerable document intended to transcend political passions. #5: The presidential election is about many important issues that have been developed over the past months — immigration, ISIS, the economy, heath care — and it would be a terrible distortion to suddenly twist it into the question whether we want the Supreme Court to be majority conservative or majority liberal.