Special: Obama on the Supreme Court? Plus, Sanders sits down with POTUS

ANNOUNCER: This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra .

MS. IFILL: Hello, I’m Gwen Ifill and this is a stripped-down version of the Washington Week Webcast Extra . I’m joined around the table by Jeanne Cummings of The Wall Street Journal and Alexis Simendinger of RealClearPolitics.

So it turns out some voters are thinking ahead. Witness this New Hampshire exchange with Hillary Clinton this week.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (From video.) The next president will probably appoint several members of the Supreme Court. Would you consider appointing Obama? (Laughter.)

MRS. CLINTON: (From video.) Wow, what a great idea. (Laughter, applause.) Nobody has ever suggested that to me. Wow. I love that. Wow. He may have a few other things to do, but – (laughter) – I’ll tell you, that’s a great idea.

MS. IFILL: Not very often do you actually get to see a candidate get asked a question they hadn’t heard before. And that response, her response, earned her a debate-stage attack from Marco Rubio. But was it really that surprising an answer? I didn’t think so, that she would say sure, why not, Alexis.

MS. SIMENDINGER: Well, what is she going to say, oh, that’s an appalling idea? No, no. And in fact, what it reminded me of, actually, was after her 2008 loss there was some discussion about whether she herself would make a good Supreme Court justice. So the concept would not have surprised her, but she knows President Obama well enough to know that he is going to be busy doing other things. But –

MS. IFILL: For the record, his press secretary was asked about it today and said no.

MS. CUMMINGS: Can you imagine President Obama and Justice Scalia trapped together for years to come in lifetime appointments?

MS. IFILL: That would be kind of fun to watch, actually.

MS. CUMMINGS: I don’t know, I think I’d – I think I’d give them room.

MS. IFILL: One of the interesting things about it, though, is we all say every single four years that the most important part of what happens – one of the most important reasons why we elect a president is who’s going to – they’re going to appoint, who will long outlive them, and yet somehow the Supreme Court doesn’t ever seem to cut as an election issue.

MS. CUMMINGS: It doesn’t. I think it’s two steps removed. The last time I thought that it had some influence was way back in 1992. And I – and I think we were – you know, the whole Roe v. Wade question was still very vital at that time. But I think for the voters, they’re worried about who’s going to help me pay my bills, who’s going to help me, you know with my house and my family and to get my kid into college and to bring – make me feel safer in a very scary world. And the Supreme Court just doesn’t fit in that, mostly.

MS. SIMENDINGER: The one thing, though, I think we’re going to hear a little bit more about it in the general election, and I think it’s because voters have tuned a little bit more to the concept of the Supreme Court as being important on the Affordable Care Act and being important on immigration.

MS. IFILL: That’s true.

MS. SIMENDINGER: Some of the cases, affirmative action for instance. So I think that the – you know, the campaigns or the parties themselves will get around to this.

Jeanne’s point is right, though, is, is a voter going to make their selection based on that?

MS. IFILL: Not necessarily.

MS. SIMENDINGER: No. But the candidates and the parties will make a big thing of it.

MS. IFILL: It’s been interesting, also, to watch the president try to figure a way to tiptoe through an election year where he’s got some things he wants to get done. But he gives an interview, he says nice things about Hillary Clinton, it becomes, what does that mean for Bernie Sanders? And then Bernie Sanders makes his way to the White House and he said what? How did that meeting go?

MS. SIMENDINGER: It was interesting because there had been lots of questioning about whether the president of the United States was going to meet or had met, and when had he met with Senator Sanders, under what circumstances, because it seemed so clear to a lot of reporters that President Obama had practically thrown his whole body on the scale for –

MS. IFILL: (Laughs.) Not just a thumb.

MS. SIMENDINGER: – not just a thumb, the whole body – for Secretary Clinton, someone he served with and had come to admire, even though he had defeated her in 2008. What happened is that the president turned out to have a little bit of a – I guess a comeuppance about being wrong about predicting how this election would go, and realized that it would be much better to look more neutral. And that meeting was at the request of Senator Sanders in December. That was not the president clamoring to have him come in. But Senator Sanders and his wife got 45 minutes with the president. Senator Sanders was asked, did the president give you any advice on how to defeat Hillary Clinton? And he laughed and smiled and gave that –

MS. IFILL: He said, “of course not.”

MS. SIMENDINGER: “Of course not” and gave the president, you know, plenty of praise and was happy to be there.

MS. IFILL: I wonder the last time when it helped to have an incumbent president vocally endorse you. I don’t necessarily think it does.

MS. CUMMINGS: Well, it’s – what’s interesting is this is – for the last few cycles, there’s been so much edginess between the nominee and the sitting president that what’s unusual is that we don’t have the kind of bitter feelings between what may – who may be the nominee and the sitting president. But Bernie Sanders just cracked me up when he came out of that meeting because, you know, the senator can’t help but be the senator, right? (Laughter.) So, you know, he’s asked how it went, and he heaps praise on the president and how they stood side by side and fought for all these great things for America – and then adds, and of course we have our differences. And then, you know, names – ticks off some issues, and it was like, OK.

MS. IFILL: Well, but you got to give it – you have to give it to both of these candidates. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders wants to lose the other’s supporters before the first vote has actually been dropped, which we’ll be watching for this week. Thank you both.

Thank you for watching. Keep up with Monday night’s caucus results at PBS.org/WashingtonWeek. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And we’ll see you next time on the Washington Week Webcast Extra .