Tough 'love'

NY Times:

When Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina gave what has become a ritualistically familiar part of American politics — the news conference on marital infidelity — there was no dutiful political wife to share the spotlight and, by her very presence, imply forgiveness.

Jenny Sanford, the first lady of South Carolina, left her husband alone to burble at length about his yearlong affair with a woman from Argentina. Instead Ms. Sanford released a statement that was hard hitting and to the point: she said she wanted her marriage to continue but demanded nothing less, as her price, than her husband’s “repentance.” On Friday, she told reporters she had known of the affair since January but had waited for her children’s school year to end before separating from him.

For thousands of women, responding on the Internet and Twitter, Ms. Sanford’s decision to hold her husband accountable provided a catharsis, a kind of public exorcism of the ghosts of political wives past.

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I don't think it was just women who thought she handled the situation the right way. I am a 100 percent guy and I have always been turned off by a guy who adds humiliation to betrayal by asking the wife to stand next to him while he admits he has been unfaithful. How could someone do that to someone they at least used to love?

It is hard to know all the demons that made Sanford go all Middle Aged Crazy. He has seemed like a lonely guy for several months. But I don't think those most sympathetic to him would say he handled this well. They can say that about Jenny Sanford.