Should Mark Sanford resign?

Mark Sanford "is not a creep," said Bonnie Fuller in The Huffington Post. The South Carolina governor is "one of those rare politicians undone by something that's not actually salacious -- pure, romantic love." Sanford isn't doing his state -- or his wife of 20 years, or his four "precious sons" -- any favors by sticking around. He should resign, and jet off to be with the woman he loves, Maria Belen Chapur, in Argentina.

It doesn't look that's Mark Sanford's plan, said Ben Pershing in The Washington Post. The governor is acting like he wants to employ the classic politician's technique for surviving a scandal -- "change the subject as quickly as possible, and restore some semblance of normalcy." So Sanford is returning to work and telling the media to move on.

That might work if Mark Sanford's biggest sin were his "acknowledged sexual indiscretions," said Louis Jacobson in National Journal. But the man "went AWOL from his gubernatorial duties" to visit Maria Belen Chapur in Argentina, and didn't tell anyone where he was going or how to reach him. Sanford abandoned his state, and that is why powerful politicians in South Carolina say he has to resign.

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