"After more than a week of pitched speculation, Trump will go on prime-time television to reveal his choice to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy..."

"... selecting a conservative designed to rally Republican voters in a midterm election year. And with that, the optics-obsessed president will be in his comfort zone — taking center stage in a massive show.... 'Everything Trump does gets more sensational than with past presidents,' said Jeffrey McCaul, a communications professor at DePauw University. 'I'm sure he's hoping for a huge prime-time audience, and he'll probably get it.'"

That's how the Boston Herald puts it.

And Ross Douthat in the NYT has "The Supreme Court Show":

First, in the traditional establishment-front-runner role, you have the eminently qualified Brett Kavanaugh, darling of the legal-conservative community, bearing an Ivy League C.V., a long record of rigorous opinions and decades of Republican experience....

Then in the role of the social conservative insurgent, you have Amy Coney Barrett — newly appointed to the federal bench, famous for having her Catholic commitments crudely criticized by Dianne Feinstein, personally appealing because she’s managed to produce impressive legal scholarship while raising seven children (two adopted, one with special needs)....

Third, in the role of the populist dark horse, you have Raymond Kethledge — a hunting-and-fishing Michigander, a handsome central-casting judge who worked his way through law school and co-wrote a self-help book, a proud outside-the-Beltway type who apparently has the charm required to ace an interview with the president....

Here at Meadhouse, we think it will be Amy Coney Barrett. As Meade just said, "My thought is he's going to make the Democrats vote against the lady." And I said, "The men are too old. They're in their 50s. They're over the hill." Amy Coney Barrett is 46 (and Trump said he pictured the new Justice serving for 40 or more years).

From Douthat:

So who has the edge? A week ago I would have suggested Barrett, since we know she can survive a hostile Senate grilling and the politics of her appointment seem ideal for a White House that could use a liberal freakout over her fecundity and faith to encourage religious conservatives to show up for the 2018 polls.

But her interview with Trump apparently went quite badly...

I read that out loud and Meade said, "Oh, that's a smokescreen."

Douthat says, "I’m not exactly shocked that the Catholic mother-of-seven and the president didn’t hit it off." I wonder if Douthat can picture Trump "hitting it off" with any woman (short of a porn star).

ADDED: Kethledge has written a book on solitude, and he's said:

I talked [with my co-author Michael Erwin] about my barn office in northern Michigan, in a forested area overlooking Lake Huron. I have no internet connection, the HVAC is a wood stove, and my workspace is a simple pine desk. I told Mike that I get an extra 20 IQ points from being in that office.... After that conversation, we decided to try to write a book about the importance of solitude.

Much as I love the topic of solitude — click my solitude tag — this business about the disconnected barn in the north gives off a Souteresque vibe, and I believe the motto is "No more Souters."

"The Bush lives loudly in Kavanaugh."

Said former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II, about Brett M. Kavanaugh, who is (supposedly) one of 3 finalists for the Supreme Court nomination, quoted in "Trump narrows list for Supreme Court pick, with focus on Kavanaugh and Kethledge" (WaPo).

Cuccinelli is making a very witty play on "The dogma lives loudly within you," which is something  Sen. Dianne Feinstein famously said to Amy Coney Barrett, who is another one of the 3 finalists.

Kavanaugh worked in the George W. Bush White House, and that counts as a negative, apparently, among Trump people. Cuccinelli also said, "He looks, walks and quacks like John G. Roberts Jr." I remember when John Roberts seemed like perfection in a Supreme Court nominee, but things have changed.

The 3rd potential nominee is Raymond Kethledge, and WaPo says "Kavanaugh and Kethledge have the 'inside track,' according to a person close to the president," because Coney Barrett has less than a year of judging to top off her 10 years of law professing. (I'll just note that Elena Kagan was mainly a law professor/dean and had not served as a judge at all before joining the Supreme Court.)

So... at the moment, it looks like Kethledge is the one. Here's a Politico article, "Kethledge gets 11th hour push as potential consensus pick for Supreme Court/Boosters for the Michigan-based judge are portraying him as eminently confirmable." I guess if "11th hour" things are possible, it could turn out to be someone we haven't been talking about yet, but I'll read this article anyway:

Former aides and supporters of Kethledge, a Michigan resident who moves outside Washington circles and is considered the least known of the leading contenders, are quietly circulating positive information about the judge’s personal life, political profile and reassuring record on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit...

Confidants also are sharing tidbits from what they describe as his encouraging early interactions with Trump, who is prioritizing personal chemistry and political magnetism along with a potential nominee’s legal record. “They just really hit it off,” said one Republican close to the White House....

Kethledge lacks Kavanaugh’s vast D.C. network and does not excite grass-roots conservatives in the same way as Barrett — a Roman Catholic, Notre Dame law professor and mother of seven who is electrifying the anti-abortion ranks....

What religion (if any) is Kethledge? I'm having a hard time finding an answer, though I see that Hugh Hewitt, pushing Kethledge in "Here’s who Trump should pick for the Supreme Court" (WaPo), called him "a man of faith." What faith? Is it possible that he's not Catholic, like every other Republican appointee?

Back to the Politico article:

Kethledge met his wife, Jessica, when they were only 13 years old. The couple have two children... Kethledge... once gave a speech at his alma mater, the University of Michigan Law School, which includes a somewhat unflattering comparison of himself to Bill Murray’s character in “Caddyshack.”

Golf. There's a point of affiliation. Hey, I found the "Caddyshack" quote, in this speech text, which begins: