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Subscribe to RSSJenny Sanford, the ex-wife of former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, has written an op-ed in praise of Herman Cain.
The most poignant parts of the editorial (published today in The State newspaper) are when she condemns the media, calling it “over-focused… on the small, the controversial and the sensational.” (She never mentions Cain’s sexual harassment allegations directly).
“They will focus on the arrows being thrown at candidates and their proposals instead of challenging others to propose new solutions,” she writes of the media.
She then adds that she is familiar with media focusing more on candidates’ personal conduct than policies.
“I know this story well," she writes. "A ‘fresh face’ appears on the political scene and puts forth new proposals that challenge the status quo and then is attacked viciously on his proposals and then his character. Many of these challengers don’t make it; some shouldn’t.”
Sanford’s experience here is two-fold: First, she was at the time married to Gov. Sanford, when he revealed that he was having an affair with an Argentine woman. Before that news surfaced, Sanford was considered a likely and promising candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Second, Jenny Sanford also endorsed then-Rep. Nikki Haley (who was a "fresh face" given that her opponents had been in South Carolina politics for much longer than she) in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Haley was also the subject of allegations of an affair by a South Carolina blogger. Rather than deter voters, those unsubstantiated charges seemed to help coalesce supporters around her.
"Time will tell if Herman Cain becomes the next political newcomer to be elected," Jenny Sanford adds of Cain, "and I, for one, am thankful he's in the presidential race."
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AH, back to the important stugg - Cain and Bachmann.
It's your party that put Herman Cain at the top of the polls; don't blame First Read for reporting on events surrounding your parties front runner.
This Cain issue is becoming more boring and boring. Am not in anyway supporting sexual harassment, but if these cases were settled, people should move on. It's a case of he said I said. We can never no the TRUTH.
Please, lets put more light on the fact that GOP candidates do not measure up to par. What are they offering?
What is really sad is that Jenny and Mark Sanford have five sons. Why couldn't they have kept their marriage going, for the sake of the kids, at least? I think adults should put their kid's emotional security above their own needs, but those are just my liberal values, I guess.
Amy I bet those five sons are better off because of the way they split up. Little name calling, she knew it was over and decided to leave. It's sad but it's better for people to realize when it's over and split up peaceably than for one side to force the other to stay is a loveless marriage just because of the 'KIDS'.
If you believe the kids don't know there is something wrong in that kind of a relationship you're kidding yourself.
Unfortunately, sometimes love just doesn't last, it may be a character flaw but that is better than cheating and staying in a pretend marriage just to try and fool the 'KIDS'.
Jon Exner & Amy
It sure complicated. Adult just have be adults. I always believe in grinding it out if you really want it.
I can see realizing you are incompatible after having one or two children together...but five? Maybe it's just me.
If it's all someone else's fault, then why is Jenny Sanford no longer married to Mark Sanford?
I'm a liberal, too, and that sounds more like a conservative talking to me. I'm not sure holding on to a dead marriage always serves children's emotional needs best. Depends on the situation. If there's rancor or abuse or violence in the home, the children will not benefit emotionally from that. After something like this happens, trust goes right out the door, and often so does love. Kids see these things. In the Sanford case, the kids saw their mother's humiliation in full, living NBC color.
And there's also this consideration: If we always tell one spouse to forgive the other and "move on," then what are marriage vows for, anyway?
Well, Mark Sanford certainly did. He thought his mistress was his soulmate. Or are you saying that Jenny Sanford was somehow to blame here?
How can a marriage be dead if produced five sons, Molly? (Unless it was Jenny who was cheating on Mark, boy, never thought of that.) And yes, I do believe in making a marriage work for the sake of the kids, unless there is physical or verbal abuse in the home. It sounds like Mark's infidelity was news to Jenny, so it's not like they both agreed the marriage wasn't working.
Anyway, how does a man have time for a mistress when he is driving kids to ball games, breaking up sibling fights, teaching a kid to ride a bike, teaching another to drive, and all those myriad other things parents do? Seriously, five boys?
I'm Anna, and maybe it wasn't dead until afterwards. I think most of their kids were grown, by the way.
As for how he had a mistress, evidently, he made the time, didn't he? Maybe, as I suspect, she was carrying the load while he was off enjoying himself. I believe they had quite a bit of money (hers), so maybe they had help.
At some point, it's always news to the other spouse. And not good news. But you seem to be advocating for her to just look the other way and ignore the fact that her husband was cheating on her. Why would she assume that, after being forced to abandon his soulmate, he would ever be in love with her again, or that he would even be faithful? Why should she just accept that humiliation, which in this case, was so public.
What do the vows mean, if they don't at least mean that much?
They will focus on the arrows being thrown at candidates and their proposals instead of challenging others to propose new solutions.
The people of South Carolina, especially the scorned ex-wife of a political corrupt governor, should keep their mouth shout. South Carolina already is embarrassing enough with all the other stuff going around in the State. Besides, she divorced her cheating husband...She is one to be talking.
Please stop trying to make this man look good. He looked already bad even without the scandal.
pen.... when you say you believe in grinding it out do mean beating the crap out of your wife to make her stay with a @!$%# head?
My bad, Anna Molly, former Governor Mark Sanford had four sons with Jenny, not five. He left his family, of four pre-teen boys, on Father's Day weekend to spend time with his Argentinian mistress.
I'm just glad I'm not related to these people.
Interesting that Cain's wife has not jumped to his defense....or did I miss something?
"We have met the enemy and he is us!" Pogo by Walt Kelly
Jenny Sanford seems to thrive on humiliation.
That says a LOT more about her than we really need to discuss.
Anna Molly mentioned earlier this morning, that it is more then likely Mrs. Cain is currently meeting with her lawyers negotiating her OWN settlement package! lol
call the GOP senators today.
BUILD BABY BUILD
They are voting on the infrastructure part of the Jobs bill.
Herman Cain is not the issue.
Jenny Sanford...Ginny Thomas......Gloria Cain..
Misery loves company!
Mrs. Cain has lots of support, maybe Ginny Thomas will give her the phone numbers of the complaining women.....she can give them a call and ask 'why are you trying to destroy my husband, you owe him an apology'!
call your GOP Senators today
They are voting on the infrastructure part of the Jobs Bill.
BUILD BABY BUILD
Herman Cain is not the issue
nurse... maybe Cains wife if confident in her husband and doesn't need to jump to his defense.
Has anyone seen his wife since he got into the race?
nurse,
Cain's worth between 6 and 10 million dollars, even as an also-ran.
If Mrs. Cain is anything like Mr. Cain, why jump off the gravy train? Whether he's out campaigning or selling his book, at least he's not at home....
Once again.
Can anyone explain in detail exactly what Cain did, and with who?? Anybody??
Thank the lord for Jenny Sanford!
Herman Cain is by far the best candidate in the Republican field and all of us should support him. I know all my liberal friends and I are seriously considering sending Mr. Cain money. Heck, I bet President Obama is donating to Cain as well!
Go Herman! And thank you Jenny.
A post such as nisl's gives me great hope that our nation will survive and it makes me think of the saying that a fool and his money........... By all means I hope the money pours in for Cain and that he becomes the candidate of the Repugnant Party.
Ray, I'm right there with you! Viva Cain!
And long live snark!
Let it be said that Cain got there on the front or backs of American Women!
My snark antennae are on overdrive today!
"We have met the enemy and he is us!" Pogo by Walt Kelly
Nikki Haley is a good example of how Alexrod- Feisty type slanderous dirty politics sometimes backfires.
Haley was subjected to a nasty sexual allegation by a liberal blogger. The voters saw through this, and Governor Haley is now a rising GOP star.
Good for Nikki a rizing star in a galaxy about to implode. Way to go Nikki you sold your soul for 13 pieces of silver.
Really? See, I thought the blogger who boinked Haley was a guy named Will Folks, and that Mr Folks was a former aide to Governor Mark Sanford. In case you didn't know, Mark Sanford is a Republican.
Where do you get that Folks is a liberal?
Nikki "drill baby drill" Haley was outed by a Republican blogger. It must suck when Karl Rove type smears come back to bite one of your favorites.
It's not necessarily the mistakes someone's made in their past that's so offensive. It's the hypocrisy of lying about it, trying to cover it up, and deriding others for doing the same thing.
Conservative Republicans continually want to legislate who we can marry, what we can do in our bedrooms, whether we continue our pregnancies, what religions we should observe, and whether God can appear in our motto or our pledge of allegiance. When one of them gets caught behaving in a way that's counter to their accepted norm, then we at least have the right to laugh at them and call them hypocrites.
We all need to point out the phonies among us. Those that create lower standards for themselves and separate higher standards for everyone else will be incapable of performing "for the common good" in their elected positions and should not be charged with the responsibilities of making the rules for the rest of us.
MikeMike
I agree. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I can't take being lectured about Christian values by conservatives, who don't supervise their teen daughters (Palin) or keep their marriages together (Sanford) or work for peace (Bush.) Makes you wonder what "Chrisian values" really mean to these people. It's like they think claiming to be Christian gives them license to live however they want just because they are "saved."
Bob's not that big on details.
Da Noid,
no kidding....his idea of a "source" is copy/pasting one of his own posts.
Oh yeah, one more thing, Jenny Sanford,
Women whose husbands stray need to take a good hard look at what their part was in it. These things don't happen in a vacuum. I'm not letting the Mr. Sanford off the hook, but I was in a lousy marriage for at least 5 of 21 years and I didn't cheat, but I did eventually divorce. I'll accept 50% of the blame, but no more than that. I also didn't sexually harass anyone during or after my marriage.
Republicans that want to chime in about "personal responsibility" all the time are the first ones that try to avoid it, and the first ones to make excuses for other Republicans that do avoid it. If you want to set the standards for everyone else, you'd better be able to live up to them yourself.
Ah yes, forget about the possibility that he actually did any of this... Oh what a great guy!! lol
Well, there's three women that claim that he did. And now that Cain's just announced that he's collected another million in contributions, I would suspect that anyone of them that settled for a mere five figures back in the 1990's will be willing to tell her story REAL soon....especially since he's claimed how incompetent they were at their jobs....
Doesn't say much about Herman's ability to hire the right people, does it? Ron Paul for Federal Reserve chairman, anyone???? How about Tim McVeigh for FBI chief????
Wow hard to believe but msnbc finally is reporting on one of rapes at OWS on the heals of the riots in Oakland. 18yr old female from my home state raped in her tent by an occupier that groped some other female days before.
I'm hearing that tent city in new york is filling up with parolees from Riker's Island. Go 99er's!
But the tea partiers are the problem in this country so says my leftie friends.
How embarrassing for Obama, Pelosi, and the dems.
Good luck getting elected with fires in the streets. I'm sure swing voters will be impressed with the climate obama has wrought.
Rob,
As I said when you posted this on another thread...
I'll give you a year's severance to never mention this again and go away.
That OWS rapist fleabagger is filing GOP Presidential nomination papers and will be leading in the polls very soon....
I can't help myself --- this is the 18th Cain thread in two days and no OWS threads aside from the main page. It seemed like their were an awful lot of tea party threads under politics during their early days.
Seems a bit odd. This should be a proud day for progressives OWS might lead the nightly news tonight.
(depending on the network)
Rob,
The Tea Party's press coverage was bought and paid for by the Kochs and Fox News. Once we all realized that they had nothing to say and didn't even comprehend the issues that they were whining about, got duped in the mid-term elections into supporting RINOs and morons, and were a front for wealthy Republicans working the system to their own advantage, we ignored them.
Until OWS is willing to stand up and be "for" something, instead of "against" something, they will get the same treatment as the Teabaggers did. Your attempts to portray them all as thugs and rapists are disingenuous at best and outright lies at worst. People are angry, no doubt. In the initial stages, that anger is usually misdirected at the guy in charge (Obama), but we've seen recently that as people become familiar with the issues, (wealth distribution) their anger can be more focused on where it belongs (Republicans).
Keep trying, though....I'm sure you'll find a rapist out there somewhere. From the looks of it lately, you'd have better luck looking amongst the GOP candidates....
keep your head in the sand....
In the 90 days of their existenance there has been over 1000 arrests. trespassing, disorderly conduct, assault and battery, graffitti, destruction of property, sexual molestation, public intoxication, drug possession and sale, open and gross lewdness....and now they are setting fires in the streets and young women are being raped (find somewhere? how about msnbc, cnn, and everyother networks home page)
I know these "outright lies" are not as severe as the tea partier with that sign of obama and the n word but give it some more time.
the tea party's press coverage was bought and paid for by Kock.....
That's laughable the tea party has denigrated as haters and racists by the media from day 1. And you know darn well they have been the most influential grass roots movement in the past 50 years.
Having only recently voted to affirm the national motto of "In God We Trust," the next non-jobs House vote will be to reaffirm the GOP/T motto: "Do As We Say, Not As Too Many Of Us Do."
Would Ms. Sanford have been quite so forgiving if The Hermanator Experience (his phrasing, not mine, although in a hopefully different context) had experienced whatever while allegedly hiking the Appalachian Trail?
Republican? Democrat? Independent? Tea Party? Liberal? Conservative? Why do any of these "labels" come into play when we're discussing character? No matter the political view or party, I'd like to think (dream perhaps) the person we're backing for president can at the very least "man up" so to speak and proclaim, "yes, I did it and I'm sorry it happened". It doesn't matter who leaked it...the scum always rises to the top...the bottom line is, the man has zero class and doesn't deserve another second of consideration from me. Hmmm...seems I felt the same about another "zero class, zero character" person...what was his name? ummm...oh yeah....Mr. President-Bill Clinton
Cain is no different than many others, male or female. They're human and make mistakes. The issue at hand now (as I perceive it) is how Cain handled it. He lied! Plain and simple! He lied! He denied it, danced around it, changed his story multiple times and now he's trying to shift the focus to, "hey, Rick Perry is ganging up on me". What a lack of character and integrity. Man up you coward. As of now, I vote "none of the above".
So what is this woman saying? It's ok that Cain sexually harrassed these women? Because he's a "fresh face" it doesn't matter? Isn't she the one who divorced her filandering husband who lied about where the hell he was and what he was doing?
DEE,
She not only divorced him, she lied to the citizens and press of SC to cover for him while he was having the affair and was out of the country in Argentina with his mistress. She's a moron.
MkeMike
OMG - thank you. I thought I was seriously missing something after reading the article. I'll just revert back to my original post. Agree wholeheartedly - moron.
You hit the nail on the head. It's beyond belief that she defends Cain. Oh well, politics does produce strange bedfellows...
Should've realized immediately she's a moron if she supported Haley.
because Jenny Sanford's husband cheated on her she is some how an expert on sexual harassment. Why does her opinion carry any weight? Obviously she is not a good judge of character. and she certainly did not have an issue with the press or publicity when she was selling her book.
Republican whiners.
You people INVENTED the "politics of personal destrcution", and now that it's biting you on YOUR asses, all of a sudden it's a crisis.
Can't take the heat? Get yer skinny ass outa the kitchen, punk.
Hey people, put your "white guilt" to some good use. I'm not going to tell you how. Just think about it!
The Herman Cain thing will not stop, in the same way the Wiener thing did not stop. Weiner was not accused of a form of crime. SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS AGAINST THE LAW. And the fact that those women were paid to keep quiet, gives the impression that if you are wealthy and in a position of power you can do anything as long as you pay the people involved not to use their freedoms to relate what happened.
And the fact that the GOP is trying to sweep it under the rug should tell us what kind of leadership and what kind of role models they are providing the people of this country. I think that an investigation is needed as he is candidate for the presidency. That we do not want anyone there that will bring more scandals to this country.
One thing is to have a penchant for beautiful women and hurt you marriage. Marriages can heal and forgive, but to do something that is completely against the law and try to weasel out of being tried under the law is unconscionable. LET HIM BE TRIED BY THE PEOPLE. If the people just decide to sweep it under the rug then I at least will be proved right in believing that in the US if you are wealthy and in a position of power and "serving" the public you can do immoral things and no one will care.
Jenny Sanford is the idea of an ideal Submissive, Blind and Stupid wife of a Republican
She just joined the list of America's Most Stupid Women
oh the gop takes woman and woman issues seriously,,,right like pap smears and breast exams....
'
Duh, What solutions? Every single candidate hasc laimed "revuue neutrality" an dsuch. This means the defict rises instead of going down. Herman Cain for instance eliminates the social security payroll tax andr eplaces it with nothing. How is the socialsecurity trust fund to be funded.
Romney has suggested rainsing the Defense Budget- and so did Cain in this morning's interveiw. Britians Defense budget is $60 billion, France's $50 billion. They get along perfectly well.Why aren't we lowering ours?
Show me a soultion!
Well, all I can say is that yes he is innocent until proven otherwise. That is what we follow in this country, at least in theory. However the way that this man has handled this crisis of his campaign, leads one to believe he shouldn't be trusted to handle any crisis larger than an over cooked pizza. Certainly not Presidential material.
"Rather than deter voters, those unsubstantiated charges seemed to help coalesce supporters around her (Gov.Haley)."
False allegations usually backfire, as they did with Gov.Haley, but that never stops the LEFT.
Since there are no sound issues to promote on the LEFT ( just SPEND SPEND SPEND), their "smear machine" becomes the only tool in the tool box.
Leona
When are you going to get this thing with Hermie? They're NOT false allegations. It really happened, whether you want to believe it or not. Hermie's doing a great job of smearing himself....along with the rest of the nincompoops in the Republican Party.
Dee,
Put down the kool aid and show me the proof!