Word: sanford
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...Jenny Sanford is not one of those scorned wives spewing bile all over her former spouse. She strives to put the unflattering revelations in context. Her soon-to-be ex-husband was ambitious and also restless because his father's death at a youngish age taught him that life was short. He was frugal because after his father died, he went through a colossal struggle to save the family's land. He became an attention junkie after his come-from-nowhere win made him a media darling and a party hero. And staying true to his ideals was almost impossible...
...possible to dish with dignity, Jenny Sanford does it. Early in their romance, Mark invited her to fly down and visit him in South Carolina. Instead of picking her up at the airport that evening, he left her a car (a stick shift) and directions to his family's remote farm 50 miles away. When she got there, he'd already left for a party. She rationalized that he wanted an independent, can-do woman - which, as a vice president at investment bank Lazard...
...recalls that Sanford more or less decided to run for office before she even knew which party he belonged to. But she knew his core belief: the government should be parsimonious with voters' money. His abhorrence of spending led to him sleeping in his Washington office on a futon, buying her a used bike as a combined birthday and Christmas present and returning a diamond necklace he'd purchased sight unseen - through a friend - because he ultimately decided it wasn't worth what he'd paid. Of course, none of this quite explains why he rarely remembered her birthday (Sept...
...more or less willingly, for no pay. She spent six years raising their four kids pretty much alone while he was in Washington. At nine-plus months pregnant, she hosted a luncheon for John McCain and a bunch of Republican bigwigs. Somewhere along the way, she believes, Governor Sanford lost the plot. (See how Jenny Sanford is the savviest spurned woman in politics...
Whatever the reason that prompted Jenny Sanford to write Staying True - and it remains a mystery, since she needs neither the money nor the publicity and she has said she would never run for office - the writing was not done in the heat of anger. She comes off as tough, reasonable and shrewd. Mark comes off as lost rather than evil or profligate. Perhaps her levelheadedness, so vital to him when he was campaigning, became less enticing to him when he was the incumbent. He may find himself needing a campaign manager again. It's hard to imagine many South...