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Jenny Sanford for Secretary of State

Until about a week or so ago I really did not know who Jenny Sanford was. Now pretty much all Americans know who she is. And for myself, I have to say that the more I have gotten to know about her the more I have come to like her.

 

Jenny Sanford is of course the wife of recently disgraced South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford. Mark performed a one-week disappearing act after which he admitted to carrying on an extramarital affair with a journalist from Argentina. Since that time he has acknowledged having other affairs as well. Mark was a rising star in the Republican Party with potential presidential aspirations, which makes his actions even more of a disaster for himself and his party.

 

However, in this situation Mark is not really the story. While he is trying to move on with his life, Jenny has already moved on with hers. Her statement about the situation was very clear in that she laid out her beliefs toward marriage, her commitments to her own marriage and her reasons for asking Mark for a trial separation. 

 

In that last part, Jenny used terms like ‘dignity’, ‘self-respect’, and ‘basic sense of right and wrong’. She also spoke about ensuring the character of her children and showed concern about the damage that Mark’s actions may have on them. Most importantly though, she laid the blame for the entire series of events directly on Mark, which is where it completely belongs.

 

In her actions, Jenny has been very clear and very resolute. She previously had put forth to Mark what she expected of him, and when he failed to live up to those expectations then she cut him loose. Clearly she is leaving the door open for a reconciliation of their marriage, but that will definitely be on terms defined by Jenny and not by Mark.

 

Compare and contract Jenny’s actions with those of other disgraced wives. When Mark held his press conference to admit his disgraceful actions, Jenny was not standing there by his side like some stoned Stepford Wife in the same way Silda Spitzer did for her husband, Eliot. Eliot Spitzer, of course, was not only cheating on his wife but also committing a criminal act by pay up to $5,000 per hour to do it. In Silda’s defense, how is any wife supposed to compete with someone who is apparently worth $5,000 per hour??? 

 

Jenny is also not blaming the other woman in the same way that Elizabeth Edwards did for her husband, John. John Edwards, of course, is the former Senator and presidential candidate who decided to have an affair while his wife was recovering from cancer treatments. 

 

And Jenny is certainly nothing like the most famous enabler of them all, Hillary Clinton. Jenny was not out there ‘standing by her man’ on national television. She was not blaming Mark’s problems on some ‘vast left-wing conspiracy.’ And she has not rounded up a bunch of political hacks to start denigrating the other woman by suggesting that when you drag a hundred dollar bill through an Argentinean village you never know what you will find (look up James Carville for reference). 

 

No, Jenny Sanford has been nothing like any of those women. Rather than continue riding on the coat-tails of her husband for financial and/or political gain like those other women have done, she is moving on with her own life, with or without Mark. Some will argue that she can do that because she is an heiress and a successful businesswoman herself. However, supposedly Hillary Clinton was a successful attorney and certainly she, Silva or Elizabeth could have walked away from their philandering husbands and gone on to live very comfortable lives.

 

It is unclear what the future will hold for the Sanfords. For Mark, many have written off his political career as now dead in the water. However, that is not necessarily true – even for his presidential aspirations. After all, Bill Clinton’s serial philandering and Barack Obama’s marijuana and cocaine usage have certainly lowered the bar in terms of personal behavior expectations for all future presidents. And even Eliot Spitzer is attempting to make a comeback, with the aid of many in the left-stream media. Mark had an affair, but at least he never committed any crimes like Spitzer did as a john for high-priced prostitutes.

 

Some people are suggesting that Jenny should run against her husband for the governorship that he now holds.  However, I think instead she should be named as our nation’s Secretary of State. She has proven herself to be a competent and accomplished woman who throughout these personally troubling times has been strong, straight-forward and steadfast. Clearly she knows how to lay out expectations for others and hold them accountable. We need someone like that at the State Department now, especially given that we currently have a president who cannot decide whether or not he should condemn the Iranian government for killing its own citizens for displaying some freedom of speech in their own streets. Unlike anyone in the current administration, Jenny Sanford has the skills necessary to be a tough negotiator and to manage difficult political relationships – just two of the skills which our current Secretary of State will never possess.