Mr. Obama has to repair the damage, which will require technically able judges who can provide a counterbalance to the ideologues who control many appeals courts.
His justification for targeted killings and drone strikes in foreign parts, prompted by his nomination of a CIA director, has coincided with his advocacy for stiffer gun control and appeals to respect human life following mass shootings.
Was it the sense of control that appealed?
Whoever controls the appeals courts has tremendous say over whose values will prevail in the United States.
But Dr. Dean's rivals argued on Saturday that he seemed to be trimming his sails on gun control to appeal to those Confederate-flag-displaying Southerners.
While greater staff control has appeal, unions believe that too often setting one up leads to a worsening of conditions, especially pension rights.
Mr. Sistani, who sees in the American pledge of democracy a chance for Iraq's Shiite majority to gain effective control, has appealed for calm.
Mr. Pataki, who started his political career as an opponent of abortion, has since the late 1980's been pro-choice and supported other issues, like gun control, that appeal to women voters.
But of all the candidates, Democrats say, Dr. Dean may have the trickiest road to walk: trying, after establishing himself in Vermont as highly skeptical of gun control, to appeal to a decidedly liberal Democratic electorate.
He said he had reasoned that unlike limiting reform to coverage of the uninsured, who make up about 7percentt of the state's population, a focus on cost control would appeal to every Pennsylvanian who visits a doctor or pays a premium.
