Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Mark Sanford

Using the autosummarize feature in MS Word, Mark Sanford's confession is reduced.



Autosummarized to 25%
I had a conversation with Gina Smith this morning when I arrived in Atlanta, and I told her about my love of the Appalachian Trail. And I used to organize hiking trips, actually, when I was in high school. It's going to hurt. In so doing, let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny and our four great boys, Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake, for letting them down. One of the primary roles, well before being a governor, is being a father to those four boys, who are absolute jewels and blessings, that I've let down in a profound way. And I apologize to them.

I would secondly say to Jenny, anybody who has observed her over the last 20 years of my life knows how closely she has stood by my side in campaign after campaign after campaign, in literally being my campaign manager and in the raising of those four boys and in a whole host of other things throughout the lives that we've built together.

I want to apologize to good friends. Tom Davis came over to the house. We called it Jurassic Park because it was the kids' dinosaur sheets and all kinds of different folks were living there in the campaign. I've let down a lot of people. That's the bottom line. Forgiveness is not an immediate process; it is, in fact, a process that takes time. I think that that is the bottom line of God's law, that it's not a moral, rigid list of do's and don'ts just for the heck of do's and don'ts. This press conference is a consequence.

I developed a relationship with a -- what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks. You know, I'm committed to that process of walking through with Jenny, the boys, with the Tom Davises of the world, with the people of South Carolina, in -- in saying where do we go from here. I'm going to resign as chairman of Republican Governors Association. You know, if I think about this process, not only does it begin at a family level, it begins with the family of South Carolinians. And so that means me going one by one and town by town to talk to a lot of old friends across this state in -- in what I've done and, indeed, asking for their forgiveness.



Autosummarized to 10%
Everybody ready?
In so doing, let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny and our four great boys, Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake, for letting them down. I want to apologize to good friends. Tom Davis came over to the house. I've let down a lot of people. That's the bottom line. Forgiveness is not an immediate process; it is, in fact, a process that takes time. I think that that is the bottom line of God's law, that it's not a moral, rigid list of do's and don'ts just for the heck of do's and don'ts. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks. You know, I'm committed to that process of walking through with Jenny, the boys, with the Tom Davises of the world, with the people of South Carolina, in -- in saying where do we go from here. I'm going to resign as chairman of Republican Governors Association.