Here's where I started to feel empathy for Gov. Sanford:

[maxsolomon]

"I guess where I'm trying to go with this is that there are moral absolutes and that God's law indeed is there to protect you from yourself, and there are consequences if you breach that." - Mark Sanford

1. Considering how many of us fail at fidelity, is adultery truly a Moral Absolute?
2. God's Law protects you FROM YOURSELF?

Call me an Atheist, but that makes Sanford seem self-loathing, and Christianity seem misanthropic.

[Why Syzygy]

1. Empathy? Really?

That's where he completely lost me. Bad enough to drag his sons into a press conference about sleeping around. But God?? Governor Sanford appeared completely self-centric and self absorbed. I don't even know how he can claim any "laws" are there to protect us from ourselves. Does he mean to keep him from getting a butt whooping? Probably. So, he's going to blame "God" for the consequences he will suffer for abdicating every responsibility he has; family, state and party? Nah. He needs to understand that's CONSEQUENCES, not "God" protecting his a**.

[maxsolomon]

3. yep, empathy

i could see his suffering, and see it's origins in the narrow, absolutist conception of right and wrong that he holds.

he is hoist by his own petard, certainly. but what he did (flake out on his state) seems evidence of a person in great pain and turmoil.

[drdtroit]

7. No, his suffering came only from the fact that he got caught.

That is the mantra of the self-serving capitalist: nothing is wrong unless I get caught.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Or a person so wrapped up in himself, that he doesn't see

others or their needs as nearly as important.

I think narcissism is at the heart of this, not religion.

[charlie]

6. Yeah, this git is oblivious to consequences

until they smack him between the eyes. He got caught 6 months ago. His wife forgave him and God told him to go and sin no more. The State newspaper had the steamy emails in December and didn't publish them. He was golden, all he had to do was have a little decency. How many get a second chance like that?

Now look at him. Idjit.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Empathy for a guy on top of the world with a heiress socialite wife

who does something that stupid?

[aquart]

4. Good thing she's an heiress.

Now the kids won't have to suffer when Dad's out of a job.

And I have empathy for him, as somebody said on TV, this is clearly his first affair because the bumbling ineptitude shows rank inexperience.

He had everything going for him and blew because he had no control over his feelings. And he never expected that.

[struggle4progress]

5. "Theological Ideas that Occurred to Me in the Rambling Press Conference I Held when I Got Home

from the Airport and Decided to Confess that I had not been Hiking the Blue Ridge but Was Actually having an Affair in Argentina"

may be a new theological genre: I don't remember seeing anything in this category before -- and I suspect it may not find its way onto the classics shelf

[JerseygirlCT]

8. I think there are people who need to believe that things like

morality are absolutes, always. I think they're always setting themselves up for conflict - either internal or external - or both.

The problem with Sanford to me isn't so much his adultry, but his lack of empathy in the past for others in the situation - it seems absolutes were meant to apply to everyone else, but given his opportunity, he seems to have simply taken the selfish route.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for those kind of hypocrites, and frankly, for those who look to excuse their behavior in these situations. I don't care how lovey he was feeling; he had made a commitment - to his wife, to his children, to the state - and he broke it, utterly. For entirely selfish and self-centered reasons.

[Why Syzygy]

10. He is also

revealing, I think, subtle manipulation attempts to frame himself as contrite, and appalling disrespect for the woman in Argentina, who he repeatedly refers to as:

"While the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with," Sanford announced.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/06/26/2009-06-26_embattled_sanford_wont_step_down.html#ixzz0JYNWcnYO&C