WASHINGTON AP – Sonia Sotomayor said she’s nobody’s clone. She’s spent a good part of her confirmation hearings showing it – and perhaps offering a preview of how she would carry herself on the Supreme Court.

There were large stretches in nearly seven hours of questioning Tuesday in which Sotomayor lapsed into the sort of painfully parsed answers that seem to afflict all Supreme Court nominees. The goal, after all, is to get confirmed and saying too little always is better than saying too much.