I can't tell you the number of times that I've said something I regretted. Nothing egregious, usually, but, something where my mouth got ahead of my brain has happened enough times that I couldn't even come close to guessing the volume.
Further, these kinds of mistakes have happened when I was speaking extemporaneously, not something that I'd well rehearsed.
I think that this has befallen Sotomayor.
- Speaking
You may disagree with her when it comes to qualifications and decisions. That's fine. But, if you discount a person for a single, verbal, incident, I certainly hope you don't live in a glass house because I would imagine no one can claim verbal perfection.
While that's my initial take on this, there's a deeper problem that bothers me.
One reason I don't worry too much about my gaffes is that no one had a recorder on during every public engagement I had. So, people have forgotten those gaffes. Having forgotten those regrettable moments means that I have a chance to move on. I can't be easily pigeon-holed into some version of a past me.
Since no one has captured my verbal life, they only have one choice when it comes to evaluating me. They must make their decisions about my personality and capabilities based upon what I do from now on...not what I have done (unless, of course, they are, like my two middle school friends, people who've known me for 30 years).
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