Barack Obama: Supreme Court pick coming soon - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

President Barack Obama told C-SPAN on Friday that he’s “going to have an announcement soon” on his pick for the Supreme Court, and said he is looking for “not just ivory tower learning.”

“I want somebody who has the intellectual fire power, but also a little bit of a common touch and has a practical sense of how the world,” Obama told C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully.

Obama repeated his hope that Congress will hold hearings in July so that they can be completed before Congress breaks for the summer.“One of the things I would prefer not to see happen is that these confirmation hearings drag on and somebody has to hit the ground running and then take their seat in October without having the time to wrap their mind around the fact that they are going to be a Supreme Court Justice,” he said. “I'd like to given them a little bit of lead time so that they can get prepared.”

Barack Obama: Supreme Court pick coming soon - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com