The discovery of a politician's marital infidelity is a highly conventional story. We're so familiar with the narrative arc - the rumours, the pinched denials, the confession, the wife (it is always a wife) standing by, the promise to embark on a healing period - that we get impatient with its artificialities very quickly. That's not to say each new iteration doesn't present its own frissons of pleasure.
The Sanford affair has provided some key twists on the formula. First, there was Sanford's unscripted, meandering confession, a public stream of consciousness, baffling and at times affecting and bizarrely compelling.
Then there is the role played by Jenny Sanford, the First Lady of South Carolina, who hasn't followed the script either. Her statements during the Governor's disappearances suggested, subtly but very clearly, that she was mighty pissed off with him. She didn't stand by, or just behind, her man during the confession. And she hasn't pretended that this is a joint problem the two of them must work through: this is definitely her husband's cock-up, so to speak, and one that only his "repentance" (I love the harsh, pre-therapy-culture resonance of that word) can begin to fix.
Thank-you, Mrs Sanford, for revitalising a tired genre.
UPDATE: "It's one thing to forgive adultery; it's another thing to condone it."
Men and women commit adultery everyday. What are the latest stats more than 50% divorce rate? People lose their way or maybe feel they aren't getting what they want from their partners. What ever the case they should at least end it cleanly first then move on.
Posted by: roulette system | June 29, 2009 at 08:58 PM