More on Sanford

1) One of the amazing things about this story is that this affair developed at precisely the same time that Mark Sanford began to gain national recognition, and it actually started right around the time the McCain campaign was looking for a Vice Presidential candidate. And many are asking, how in the world did he think he was going to get away with this? In my opinion, I'm not sure he necessarily thought that he was going to get away with this. Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News last night: "The oddity of this and the self-destructiveness would suggest even to a layman that this is a near-intentional political suicide." That seems about right to me, but who knows. Definitely a case study for someone in the psychological field.

2) Keith Olbermann certainly was enjoying the Sanford downfall. On last night's show, he reported that emails had been released between Sanford and the Argentinian, and that these emails "left out no details". My first thought was "oh no". I was imagining something very bad. I eventually summoned the courage to get online and read some of these emails, and found out that yes, they were intensely personal, but no, they were not as graphic as Olbermann had wanted his audience to believe they were. To me, the emails read like something out of a Pat Conroy novel. Still not good though.

3) Perhaps the most ridiculous criticism I heard regarding the Sanford situation was from Howard Fineman on MSNBC. He explained that Sanford's political philosophy is all about states rights (and "not the racist kind"), and therefore, as a Governor, he views himself as equal in importance to the President of the United States. Since he sees himself equal in importance to the President, how could he just leave the way he did? Whatever. Yes, it's impossible to justify what happened, but this has nothing to do with his political philosophy. (If it did, leaving the state without a chief executive for several days is, if anything, entirely consistent with his philosophy of limited government.)

4) Another blog asked the question, since Sanford was on the VP short list, did the McCain campaign know? Good question.