Well this is LIFE as a republican, know that your candidates have to be FAR above reproach bc every foible can and will be used against them. i think it’s a pretty unassailable fact that he was absent from his family/children over Fathers Day. if we know nothing else we know that he wasn’t with them. and please stop with the hyperbolic accusations of hysteria. i could not care less about mark sanford one way or the other, am not out to get him, had no feelings about him prior to this, but have a negative impression of him knowing what LITTLE i do know as fact. and if i am reacting this way, as a well-informed, educated, and pre-disposed towards conservative candidates FREEPER, imagine what the run of the mill non-aligned SC voter thinks. Again, it’s senseless to rail against those who are REACTING to the story, the blame lies with the politician who provided the ammo with which he is being bombarded.
No, being above reproach isn’t enough, because the media can make up and distort anything about you or your family, it no longer matters how well you comport yourself. And I will not hesistate to criticize FReepers who pile on here when they don’t know what happened and swallow these media accounts without question. I don’t blame Gov. Sanford, I blame those who lie and distort and smear him. There’s a small contingent of FReepers who hate his guts because he is one of the most principled Conservatives in elective office today, perhaps the most principled Conservative Governor in the country. Just like with Palin, he has to fight a vicious RINO clique out to destroy him within his own state. Interestingly, some of the names associated with this story are the very people who happen to be a part of that clique. I hold THEM responsible for their role in this.
BTW, back in 2006, in my state of TN, we had our Democrat Governor vanish for weeks that didn’t get a fraction of the coverage this did, and it happened to be during the election season when the Lt Governor was an incompetent, senile man in his mid-80s. They didn’t turn anything over to him. Of course, our Gov is a Democrat, and we all know they get a pass for everything... unless they do anything Conservative.