Sanford risks being odd man out in 2012

South Carolina GOP Gov. Mark Sanford’s disappearing act is reviving an often-whispered, if rarely written, question about presidential hopefuls: Just how strange is too strange?

It takes a unique person to run for the White House, but the dividing line between endearingly quirky and just downright odd can often separate winners from losers.

Sanford’s solo stroll on the Appalachian Trail falls short of the character questions raised by changing your name and fudging your age (Gary Hart) or accusing an incumbent president’s campaign of trying to disrupt your daughter’s wedding (Ross Perot).

But is the straight-laced Republican base ready for a candidate whose idea of relaxation is leaving his wife and kids on Father’s Day weekend to commune with nature?

As an introduction to the American public, Sanford’s walkabout is unquestionably damaging.

Yet past political figures have recovered from inauspicious national debuts — see, for example, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s droning speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Where the Sanford story could be more fundamentally harmful to his political prospects is in what it suggests about his persona.

It’s one thing to be a millionaire who wears frayed slacks, as Sanford is known to do, but some veteran political strategists and observers believe this episode pushes him over the line between eccentricity and flat-out bizarre behavior.

“We’re talking about professional and personal issues of responsibility,” said longtime GOP ad man Alex Castellanos. “It’s not just that the governor of the state, charged with emergency management, disappears. But at the same time, on Father’s Day, he leaves his four kids and wife to go hiking and they don’t know where he is?”

Sanford is bumping up against a threshold in politics for what a state politician can get away with versus what voters will tolerate from presidential candidates.

As the political analyst Charlie Cook put it: “Governors can be quirky — presidents can’t be quirky.”

So it’s one thing, for example, for then-Gov. Jerry Brown to date the likes of rock star Linda Ronstadt and sleep on the floor of his apartment while governing California. But America wasn’t at the time — and probably still isn’t — ready for an ascetic bachelor in the White House.

In Sanford’s case, South Carolina politicos aren’t terribly surprised at this latest turn of events.

Beside the well-worn story of the governor cradling squealing piglets under his arms in the statehouse to make a point about pork-barrel spending, Sanford-did-what stories are legion in Columbia political circles.

They’re small incidents, but enough to raise eyebrows among the traditionalists who dominate the state’s political establishment.

As a member of Congress in the 1990s, he slept in his office to save money. Political insiders recount tales of his walking around barefoot in meetings in the state Capitol and even doing sit-ups at odd times. During his State of the State speech in 2006, he lost his train of thought and admitted he was daydreaming about a fishing trip with a pal.

Katon Dawson, the former state GOP chairman, recalled when Sanford disappeared from the Republican National Convention last year in St. Paul, Minn.

“He called me and said he was in back in South Carolina,” Dawson said. “He didn’t tell anybody.”

Dawson said he admired Sanford’s firm conservative principles but acknowledged that the soft-spoken governor was considerably different than the back-slapping good ole boy of southern political lore.

“He’s a long-distance marathon runner,” Dawson said. “A guy who enjoys the solitude and can take a lot of pain.”

While those traits can be helpful, it’s not exactly the typical profile for a national political hopeful — especially the solitude part.

“To run for president requires a steady diet of crackpot stew: start with borderline narcissism, add a bit of Messiah complex, stir in a dollop of paranoia and blend with delusions of grandeur,” explained longtime Democratic strategist Paul Begala.

So voters are already presented with individuals who are not, by most standards, normal.

Americans have demonstrated that they’ll tolerate marital indiscretions (again, see Clinton) or illicit substance use (see the past two presidents) in their commanders in chief. But weirdness they have a steady track record of rejecting.

Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter straddled the fine line, but they were more awkward and withdrawn than strange.

Hart, Perot, Brown, Bob Kerrey, Pat Robertson, Dennis Kucinich? None of them ever even won the nomination.

Their peculiarities took different forms — ranging from Kerrey as the more detached, post-modern type to Kucinich, who often appears as just plain flaky — but none passed the have-a-beer-with test.

Ed Rollins, who ran Perot’s ill-fated 1992 campaign for a time, recalled a conversation he had with the late Hamilton Jordan, another top strategist working for the Texas billionaire, after the two came to the conclusion that their candidate had no business controlling nuclear warheads.

“There is no way he is going to end up being president,” Rollins said he told Jordan. “This guy is nuts, and the country will find that out.”

No one is yet comparing Sanford to Perot, but as Rollins notes, voters have a discerning eye for the personality traits of their national politicians.

The good news for Sanford: It’s 2009, part of an era of short attention spans.

“Unless he buried a few bodies along the Appalachian Trail, I don’t think this will matter in the least,” said GOP strategist Stuart Stevens.

Sanford’s allies believe the governor is a victim of an irresistible summertime story and some in-state Republican adversaries who delight in making him look bad. They also emphasize that Sanford, who lost his father in high school, is a doting parent who spends considerable time with his four boys.

But narratives matter in politics and, with this move, he is playing into one of the most difficult to overcome — that of the odd duck.

Mrs. Sanford balanced raising a family, managing her husband Mark’s political campaigns and being active in the non-profit community. In 1994, Mrs. Sanford managed her husband Mark’s successful campaign for Congress, the couple’s first foray into the political arena. Mrs. Sanford also managed his winning gubernatorial campaign in 2002, assisted him daily at the Statehouse during his first term as governor, and co-managed his successful reelection in 2006.

Part of the mystery is that for two days we have had her with all of her political experience mumbling a couple of I don't knows and the Chief of Staff's incompetence that only created more confusion and speculation, was every one out of the Governor's loop.

“You can listen to them online, WLS is the most listened to radio station on the web.”

Ah! Thought so. I always liked listening and calling in to Don Wade, Roe Conn, Ed Vrdoliak/Ty Wonsley and Katherine Johns. Are they still there?

Earlier in this thread I “named names” regarding who had it out for Gov. Mark Sanford of SC. EVERY word of that still stands. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, Sen. Jake Knotts and Sen. Glenn McConnell (and many others) have done their best to sabotage Mark Sanford, and his refusal to take federal stimulus funds just drove them to madness in their spite of him. So, too, was this the case for local and even national news media.

That said, it appears that Gov. Sanford did indeed deceive his staff, State Law Enforcement and perhaps even his wife about his whereabouts over the last weekend. The story told by them — and even the Gov. himself — is that he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail.” NOW it has emerged that he had left the country, and was in Argentina! Alone.

WHAT?!? SO, naturally, I can’t WAIT to hear what Gov. Sanford has to say for himself in light of this emerging story. I think the whole story needs to be told now.

Don’t get me wrong, everyone who is gunning for Sanford has acted like snakes in the grass, and they are more than deserving of SC citizens wrath. But, if Gov. Sanford left the country, mislead his staff and perhaps even family as to his whereabouts, will not divulge his purposes for such a trip, and shrugs this off with a “so what?” Okay, that’s just too weird.

All that is, IF what we’ve heard is accurate. I await Sanford’s afternoon news conference...

You are right. With her experience and know-how, you’d think she could have smoothed it over or at least not made it worse IF she had wanted to do so. I’m not sure what wife/mother with young kids would be happy about her husband leaving the family on Father’s Day weekend though.

I agree, I've been trying to figure out why I am so mad at the guy and I think it is because as the news dragged on Monday, that by that evening I had figured out that he screwed up so badly that he had knocked himself off of my short list of hoped for contenders.

I'm kind of amazed at my fury at him for this self destruction, I think it is because I feel betrayed, I'm just glad that I wasn't more invested in him as many others were and some still are.

Still feel this way in light of recent developments on this story?

“Still feel this way in light of recent developments on this story?”

Why wouldn’t I?

He broke no law, didn’t steal taxpayer dollars to take his wife to a play in NY and the state hummed along without falling apart.

If you have other information that disputes that, write it up.

It is over now anyway. No wonder his wife seemed so despondent and out of the loop.

During an emotional news conference, SC Gov. Stanford said he is resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.1 minute ago from BNO Headquarters

Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to having an affair with a woman from Argentina at a much anticipated Tuesday afternoon press conference. Sanford said he and his wife are trying to work through this. Sanford called himself selfish

If a man wants to take a hike and so-called conservatives object, you can take a flying leap out the window and crash and burn.

This incessant upset about where Gov. Sanford is is nothing more than the whining of left wing liberals. We don’t care if you liberal jerks don’t know where Sanford is. You can go take a flying leap off a bridge. You so-called conservatives worrying about where Sanford was can also take a flying leap off a tall building.

“Still feel this way in light of recent developments on this story?”
Why wouldn’t I?

Well, I guess I and the other people worrying here just had less faith in politicians than you.

So what’s your point?

Are you gloating? Obviously.

Are you happy? Yep.

Are you a left wing DU plant? Most likely.

Come on, ansel12, tell us how you FEEEEEEEEL!!!

I’m still waiting for you to admit what state you’re from. Is that top secret?

Your emotionalism kept you from ever paying attention to the story, it kept you ignorant but in a few days the facts of what happened and what the governor did and tried to pull off should start pushing through until even you become aware of them.

Being angry and emotional is no way to keep up with a national event.

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