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Watching the news of the day with Brett Kavanaugh, McConnell's decision to block Garland's nomination might go down as the most pivotal political decision of this generation. At the time there seemed to be very little Obama could do to fight back. Only the Senate could choose whether or not they wanted to give Garland a hearing and the Senate was run by Republicans. Obama eventually backed down in the standoff, safely assured in the belief this would end up being a perfect campaign issue for Hillary about how unreasonable Republicans were and give her a boost with independents because there was no possible way Trump could possibly win. But what if Obama had decided to fight in the only way he could? By shutting down the government and turning the political fight into one of public opinion by first holding a National Address about the perilous Constitutional Crisis Pandora Box that had just been opened. How much political blowback would he have suffered? Would Republicans simply wait him out knowing that he would have to reopen the government soon or face a massive backlash? Does that simply make the situation worst or would Republicans respect Obama finally showing a backbone?