South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford reversed a long-standing state government executive travel policy last week, by undertaking a six-day trip to Argentina without notifying his family, his staff, or the South Carolina legislature.
The trip represented a departure from the former policy Gov. Sanford observed during the Bush/Cheney administration. Sanford previously would not leave the country without informing his staff of his whereabouts or without a means of frequent communication in the case of a state emergency or a catastrophic event, such as a terrorist attack or other law-enforcement emergency.
Frequent warnings and escalations of the "threat level" under the Bush/Cheney administration to "orange" levels apparently added to the sense of urgency and impending doom regarding the collective terrorist threat - those warnings were closely heeded in the South Carolina Governor's office.
After nearly five months under the Obama administration's watch, Sanford felt confident enough about the current national security situation to finally take an unannounced vacation to Argentina, a departure from his usually non-newsworthy junkets hiking the Appalaichan Trail. This was the "exotic" destination that he'd been longing to visit, no doubt inviting hoots of derision from fellow Republicans and the mainstream media who had recently been criticizing President Obama regarding his trips to such "exotic" domestic venues such as Hawaii and New York.
The unscheduled South American trip seemed to catch his staff, the Lieutenant Governor, the legislature, and Sanford's own wife by surprise. Such an event is perceived by some analysts as a posing a serious blow to the Governor's unannounced ambitions for higher political office, but Sanford himself seemed to shrug off those ambitions with his latest actions. Sanford has made his feelings known that the country is in good hands and able hands, and that a change in executive leadership is unnecessary and unlikely in 2012.