If timing is everything, Barack Obama is Mr. Rolex.

Once again, he proved that there is an art and science to making political moves that allows him to be ahead of the curve more often than not…and eliminates the need to back-pedal before the cameras.

Tuesday, the President unveiled his pick to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter: Judge Sonia Sotomayor. To the average person, the name means little other than it sounds, and is, Hispanic. (Few of us ever really know who these nominees are until the pundits start arguing on television about their past rulings and position on abortion) But there is always, ALWAYS, controversy over a pick.

So, back to the timing. President Obama chose to introduce Judge Sotomayor on a Tuesday morning when Congress is out of session.

No quick and angry news conferences in the halls of congress or in between votes or on the capitol steps. No concentrated GOP opposition or immediate criticism of her credentials. Really, no critique at all. (aside from written statements by both Mitt Romney and Michael Steele).

Instead, the media and public is left to savor the message the president wanted us to focus on: the potential first Hispanic and third woman on the bench, a product of Puerto Rican immigrants, fatherless at age 9, a public housing tenant who rose to the highest ranks at Princeton and Yale. Not to mention, appointed to lofty seats by both George H. W. Bush AND Bill Clinton. Wow, bi-partisanship?

Ah yes, and before the first probing hand at the daily White House grilling of Robert Gibbs could even be lifted, Obama’s carefully choreographed, or should I say, chronograph-ed, step was in place. Air Force One had just lifted off and headed to Vegas for a fundraiser in honor of Harry Reid.

Don’t like Sotomayor? Want to challenge her partiality? Question her ability to rule on the laws not interpret them? Fine. Stir the pot. Fan the flames. Ask away.

But when most of the cameras are in D.C. and most politicians aren’t…it looks like the guru of Greenwich Mean Time was at it again.