Argentina, Appalachian Trail, it’s all the same thing for Sanford

By Jason Wright, Editor

Filed Under Outside the Track, Race for White House 2012, Scandals on Jun 24 

Yesterday’s debate about Sanford’s private getaway to hike the Appalachian Trail drew sharp, committed arguments from both sides.

Now that we know he was actually in Argentina, has anyone’s opinion changed?

Mine sure hasn’t. How do you travel to a foreign country without letting your Lt. Gov. know? Your wife? Your staff? Or maybe they did know and were lying for him, but why? All we have today are more questions.

Sanford needs to address this in a news conference today. Otherwise we’ll be forced to send him tumbling in the PD Power Rankings, and that would prove devastating to his 2012 hopes! (insert gagging noises)

Comments

  • Gary Russell

    Wow, I wait til lunch to check PD, and I miss the whole debate/debacle.

    I gotta get off the Sanford Defense Team, too. I had no problem with a little hike back-country…but not a mystery flight out-of-country!

    As stated by others, I hope for his family’s sake that this was just a poorly thought out get-away, and not something more “John Edwards-esque”.

  • Troy La Mana

    I’ll wait until after the press conference to comment.

    • Troy La Mana

      Stick a fork in, he’s done.

  • http://scottslant.blogspot.com/ Scott A. Robinson

    I call for a dissolution of the GOP lead horse and request a re-vote!

    (I had to actually disable Adblock Plus to see if his picture was still there.)

    • David Kaiser, Editor

      The scuttlebutt is that there will be a star-studded, All-American, Red, White, and Blue edition of the Power Rankings somewheres around the Fourth of July.

      Stay tuned!

  • Sartho

    Yeah, that’s an interesting twist. Who knows what’s going on. My theories are:

    1 – Maybe the man truly isn’t that interested in running for POTUS.

    2 – Troubles with the wife. And I’m not necessarily implying there’s another woman, but I’m not eliminating the possibility since you just never know.

    3 – Maybe it’s a name recognition ploy – bad headlines are better than no headlines? But it seems a strange way to accomplish that so I doubt it.

    • David Kaiser, Editor

      There’s gotta be an easier way to stay in the headlines you would think.

      Couldn’t he get some late night talk show host to insult his family?

      • Sartho

        That’s why I said I doubt that would really be a legit reason. I’m thinking it’s more either options 1 or 2.

        I think we’ve all forgotten that the man has never officially announced interest in running for president. He might have alluded to it a little bit, but he could have changed his mind. We all talk like we just assume he’s going to do it.

    • Red State Eddio

      That’s exactly where I went, Sartho. Is there something afoot with the missus that she doesn’t know where he is, and he’s off missing Father’s Day by himself?

  • http://nonangrypoliticalwoman.blogspot.com treen

    Press conference at 2 pm Eastern, if you hadn’t caught that yet. (Reported on The Fix in the Post.)

  • AWB

    As a former SC resident, I’m a big Sanford fan, but I’m really disappointed by this bizarre behavior. I have no problem with a governor going away for a few days of R and R, especially after dealing with the fractious SC legislature, but when you’re in a position of responsibility you must stay in some sort of contact and inform the people that need to know (which would include the Lt. Gov). This is disappointing, and potentially devastating for a person I thought would be one of the better 2012 options. There may yet be a decent explanation, but so far, I’m not seeing it.

  • David Kaiser, Editor

    It would be a dereliction of duty if I did not call one of my favorite posters, Red State Eddio, out on the carpet for his comment on yesterday’s original Sanford post:

    6. Sanford is not an idiot.

    Care to retract? :)

    • Red State Eddio

      Nothing like being called on the carpet for opening my big mouth. Doh! I’m feeling the luv, DK!

      I can neither confirm nor deny that Mark Sanford is a complete idiot – but he’s sure acting like one. ;-)

      ALT THEORY: South Carolina is readying to seceed again. He just went to set up their off-shore banking in Argentina, since their currency is so good.

      • David Kaiser, Editor

        Was Rick Perry the co-signer of said bank account?

  • Alaina

    I had such high hopes for this one….

  • Brian H

    Agreed 100%!!! I would not know where to begin to try to spin this thing if I wanted to.

    Like you seem to have, David, I also have some serious concerns with the details we don’t know. I am concerned that a secret trip to a South American country by a wealthy, white, married man may be more than just a walkabout.

  • David Kaiser, Editor

    I was mostly joking when I wrote that post yesterday.

    I don’t think it’s funny anymore, Sanford screwed up.

    • http://www.politicalderby.com/ Jason Wright, Editor

      Agreed, Senhor Roll. I’m curious how his PD defenders will spin this today. It’s mind-numbingly dumb on every level.

      For the sake of his family, I hope there’s not more to this than just poor political judgment.

      What married man with young children travels thousands of miles to a third-world country without letting them know where he’s going?

      Oh yeah, and he’s governor.

      • Red State Eddio

        Disembarking off the ‘defending Sanford’ train, next stop please. The A-Trail is one thing; Argentina “just to be exotic” is another. There’s something more to this story that’s not being told publicly. All kinds of guesses as to what it might be, but right now, only Sanford knows.

        “What married man with young children travels thousands of miles to a third-world country without letting them know where he’s going?” – you forgot to add, “on Father’s Day weekend”.

        It just sounds odd. He may be surrendering his PD lead to Mittens or Sarah after this one.

    • Mrs. Rusty Shackleford

      Doesn’t this also speak about his possible inability to handle the pressures of POTUS since the common theme here is he needed a break after an exhausting legislative session? If he can’t handle the pressures of being Governor than he needs to be demoted from the PD standing just for stamina issues.

  • RickyD

    I wonder if he checked all the political baggage he brought back?

    • Brian H

      GREAT line!!

    • Brian H

      I agree with David. This horse seems to have Mad-Cow disease.

      This story does not become less odd as the details emerge.

      I keep expecting to learn something that would clarify the whole situation….I have yet to find that information.

      In my mind, this whole situation has greatly reduced my enthusiasm for Sanford. It just simply such an odd thing to do. Being a married man, I can’t ever imagine just leaving to go somewhere for several days without telling my wife. Argentina???? It also exposes something about Sanford that he lack the political saviness to understand that this would not be a good idea. If Joe Biden did something like this we would be hammering him to hell. This may become Sanford’s “macaca” moment.

      This horse has left the stable. It might be time to readjust the “morning line” on the GOP horses.

      • David Kaiser, Editor

        This may become Sanford’s “macaca” moment.

        That’s great Brian, I actually just sent an email to Jason and Stephen calling this incident exactly that sentence.

        We may have a new terminology to describe early Presidential hopefuls who do something incredibly stupid to derail the chances before they even get started.

  • Red State Eddio

    Gee, I hope he enjoys his tan.