I think it makes it less likely to have to settle for “dud’ like Souter but doesn’t eliminate it entirety because of squishes like Collins and Corker(my senator but not for long)
. . . but there is also the factor that during the campaign, Trump published a “long" list of 25 people he would consider for SCOTUS. He has now nominated two people from that list.The fact that Trump won election in that context puts an additional onus on whoever claims that such a nominee is “out of the mainstream” to make a coherent case.
If the Democrats could make that case about any one long-list person, their main chance to exploit that weakness was before the election. They didn’t whiff, exactly - they didn’t even swing at the pitch. Shame on them. Trump blew a fastball right by them, and they were not ready to swing.
In reality, they didn’t think they had to take Trump seriously. Now they should just put a paper bag on their head.