I hate identity politics also but in this case any male nominee is going to get accused of sexual harassment to stall the proceedings. The dems have undoubtedly got dozens of women lined up to accuse the new nominee of rape, they're just waiting to find out the name to put on the papers. Nominating a woman takes that card away from them. I've seen the name of Barbara Lagoa thrown around in addition to Barrett. I don't know much about her but at first glance she looks OK, she's a miami born cuban and that would probably help deliver the cuban community vote for Trump in the election. Florida's going to be tight and is a must win for Trump so that's a consideration.
Ideally we'd nominate the most conservative and best qualified person we can find but that's not reality, this thing is highly politicized and we have to have someone that can quickly get through the hearings while the dems throw anything and everything at them. A white male is going to get accused of sexism and racism, that's the first page of the dem playbook and is a given in today's environment. Right now they'll just want to stall the hearings until after the election, it's critical that we get the new justice seated before the election.
Would I like a conservative protestant white male? Yes, I would but his nomination would get stalled and strung out by the dems past the election and it'd be as good as dead. The nominee won't get a vote from a dem no matter who it is, that's a given, but by picking carefully Trump can take a lot of arrows out of the dems quiver that could be used to hold up the confirmation.
