It would be like a beautiful dream

Volokh Conspirator David Bernstein presents some good arguments, both political and legal, for an ideal nomination to the Supreme Court. I'm generally a fan of Alex Kozinski. Alas, politics being what they are, this is almost certainly not to be.

I think the likeliest choice is John G. Roberts. The Washington Post's profile of him describes a reliably conservative, judicially-experienced yet not-widely-written candidate with experience clerking at the Supreme Court (for Chief Justice Rehnquist) and arguing frequently before it. On the down side, he has advised reversal of Roe v. Wade; but on the up side, he has voted to limit Congress' power under the Commerce Clause. He's also only 50 years old, and so likely to be able to stay on the Court for a long time and would have a big impact on the law for a long time to come. Most politically liberal groups will reflexively oppose him, but let's face it, they'd oppose Mahatma Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King if President Bush nominated any of them, so that isn't really a very useful or credible indicator of his potential acceptability as a judge on the nation's highest court.