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First Class First LadyBy INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, June 30, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Integrity: In a society that so often feeds on others' adversity, Jenny Sanford has reminded us that hard times bring out the best in good people. No politician's wife has ever shown more grace.
South Carolina's first lady sacrificed her privacy and much of her time for the sake of her husband's political career. In return, she discovered that her husband, conservative Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, was having ongoing trysts with his Argentine mistress.
The details are the sort of thing that keep a gawking public coming back for more — steamy e-mails, a cover story that he was hiking incommunicado on the Appalachian Trail, the choice of Father's Day for adultery
Unlike so many other jilted political wives of recent times, Jenny Sanford was not convinced by her ambitious husband or his aides to take part in the charade of standing with him disingenuously at some circuslike press conference. The cameras would not get their image of offender and victim, side by side.
Instead, the visual the media would be forced to accept was video of the first lady taking some well-deserved vacation time with family. This wife, so dedicated to her husband's aspirations that she actually managed his campaigns, told reporters that the governor's career was "the least of my concerns."
The former Wall Street executive was even able to present a cheerful face to the swarm of reporters at the side of the car she was driving, as she headed off for some R&R.
"I've got both my sisters," she said, pointing to them in the vehicle with her. "Am I okay? You know what, I have great faith and I have great friends and great family. And you know, we have a good Lord in this world, and I know I'm gonna be fine. Not only will I survive; I'll thrive."
She added: "I don't know whether he'll be with me, but I'm gonna do my best to work on our marriage because I believe in marriage. I believe in raising good kids; it's the most important thing in the world."
Driving away, she grinningly left the reporters with this sassy goodbye: "I wish we had room on the boat for y'all, but we do not!"
That's a first lady worth being faithful to. South Carolinians and all Americans won't soon forget her. Too bad Gov. Sanford did.
Ditto! Ditto! Ditto!