Item Detail
-
24455
-
0
-
6
-
English
-
Road Trip : The Strange Travels of Mark Sanford and Brigham Young
-
Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
-
Fall 2010
-
43
-
1-6
-
"Among the strangest of political spectacles is the ongoing soap opera triggered by the bizarre behavior of Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina. Sanford's indignant wife, Jenny, has exited the gubernatorial mansion, divorced him, published a tell-all memoir, and embarked on a national book tour that has become a triumphant antithesis of the traditional credo of the embarrassed American political wife: 'Stand by your man.' South Carolinians, if not most Americans, were mystified to find that Governor Sanford had gone missing, vanished without explanation." [p. 1] "Governor Sanford reappeared at the Atlanta airport in Georgia after returning unannounced from Buenos Aires, far from either the Appalachian Trail or South Carolina. He had been tangoing with another woman other than the Palmetto State's First Lady. Citizens of other states tempted to indulge in smug reactions of 'it couldn't happen here' might wish to recall that it has in at least one other place-- Utah. In that case, Governor Brigham Young was involved; his unexplained five-week absence from his duties in the spring of 1857 took place on a scale, in a direction, and with a flourish that makes the Governor Sanford episode seem bland. As with Sanford's disappearance, Governor Young's disappearance had an international flavor as well as national political implications." [p. 2]