Another potential presidential candidate bites the dust on the Republican side.
There is much more to it than that, of course. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) made his first mistake, hurting himself and surely his family, to say nothing of his career, when he began an illicit affair with a woman from Argentina. He made his second mistake when he disappeared for several days to visit his paramour, misleading nearly everyone regarding his whereabouts.
His third mistake, though far less substantive from the perspective of the man’s life, is worth looking at all the same. That is the ridiculous buildup he gave to his admission at this afternoon’s press conference.
It took Sanford by some estimates seven minutes of circumlocution — including multiple apologies, reflections on life, and a brief discourse on God’s law — before he got to the point. It was extremely frustrating to watch, and it made the admission itself seem almost anticlimactic. Given all of the buildup, many of us standing around the television in The Examiner newsroom were convinced that Sanford would reveal something more salacious — at the very least, that he would imitate former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey (D) and say that he was gay.
This speech, along with the 30-minute delay of Sanford’s press conference (which helped the cable networks build up to his relatively anticlimactic admission), make this the textbook example for future generations of how not to admit an infidelity.
Update: This is not the first time an Argentine mistress has been an American politician’s downfall — for Rep. Wilbur Mills D-Ark., it was the Argentine Firecracker.
