Mark Sanford's Confession of Infidelity

I was going to post about an idea I have for a 2012 Republican gubernatorial candidate for president today. It would have involved South Carolina's governor, Mark Sanford.

However, given Sanford's shocking announcement yesterday, I'll save that post for tomorrow.

Instead, I want to discuss my own reaction to and feelings about Sanford's behavior.

In talking about the Sanford confession of a year-long affair with an Argentinian woman, a friend expressed great disappointment in a guy who had such promise as a presidential candidate for 2012.

I disagreed, and suggested that it was better to have discovered now that Sanford doesn't honor his promises.

Allow me to explain.

If Sanford had determined that his marriage was no longer functioning and productive, for him, his wife, or his children, he had the option of filing for divorce. In today's political world, that would not have been a death knell for his career, unless he quickly remarried and were found to have been having an affair with his new wife prior to his divorce.

If Sanford was simply unhappy with his marriage, but it was still productive for his children, then I think he owed it to them, whom he chose to father, to remain in his marriage, and avoid the selfish option of divorce.

However, to simply decide that it would be too messy, expensive, or otherwise dysfunctional to file for divorce, and, instead, have an affair without his wife's agreement, tells us all we really need to know about Mark Sanford.

He made a promise when he married, and broke it. He lied to his wife, implicitly at least, and almost certainly explicitly, in order to have time with his mistress. He probably also lied to his children and various staffers concerning his whereabouts, and/or other topics involving the health of his marriage and family life.

It would have been, to me, perfectly acceptable had Sanford shared the knowledge of his affair with his wife, a priori, as part of an 'open marriage.' Granted, most politicians don't feel they can get elected with that value as part of their persona. But I'd personally have had a lot more respect for Sanford, had the affair simply been something acceptable in his marriage, and not covered up.

To me, the Sanford situation has nothing whatsoever to do with his political convictions. Whether liberal, or conservative, an elected or appointed official who is found to have lied and/or obstructed justice in order to conceal behavior of which s/he was not proud has a profound character flaw which, in time, will also appear in her/his professional activities.

In former president Bill Clinton's case, it's clear he obstructed justice and lied to cover up his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. Despite Democratic charges of prudishness on the part of Republicans who brought impeachment charges, it was Clinton's cover up, not his affair, that was of concern to the voters.

Similar to my comments about Sanford, I believe that the Clintons had an open marriage. But I think they realized that they could not get Bubba elected carrying such baggage. So they pretended to be a happy monogamous couple, and even had a child. But various reports, public and private, have convinced me that the two had, and probably still have and open marriage.

While personal matters are, per se, private, we can learn a lot about an elected official, or candidate, by how they handle their personal matters. It should be fairly obvious that the character and values of a person are integral, so what you see in their personal life is pretty much how they'll behave with the public trust.

Kennedy dissembled about his affairs and health. Nixon covered up the Watergate burglary. Clinton lied and took actions to prevent the truth being discovered about the Lewinsky affair, and his wife did the same with Travelgate and the infamous missing Rose law firm documents regarding Whitewater.

Our current president has lied about his associations with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright when both proved embarrassing, only to return to those associations, according to various sources, when the heat was off.

Sanford has demonstrated that, when necessary, he will lie to those to whom he made promises, and will break those promises, in pursuit of selfish personal fulfillment.

Do you really want someone like that as your president? I don't.

I'm pleased that, if this were to happen to Sanford, it happened now, rather than after a presidential nomination, or election to that office.

Despite many admirable traits and political values, Mark Sanford has some glaring character flaws which should not be in a man or woman who becomes president.

To overlook distasteful behavior or values in a candidate's personal life and believe they won't also color that person's judgments and behaviors when in elected or appointed office is to be naive.

Character and values are, for the most part, integral to people. When we see lying and deception occur in a politician's personal life, you can bet it's going on, or will, when necessary, or expedient, in their professional life, as well.