This point has been made many times before, but it looks like it's time to underscore it again.
While we may get a lot of self-satisfaction in pointing out the right wing's hypocrisy, it doesn't serve much of a purpose in growing our ranks or shrinking theirs.
Generally speaking, the right wing does not see things in terms of hypocrisy. They see things in terms of principles that are oftentimes impossible to attain. To them it's not about succeeding to attain their standards. It's about attempting to.
This is what original sin is about. The religious right's frame is that we are all sinners. Our human journey is about working to absolve ourselves of sin. But we are all sinners.
The likely outcome among the right wing base, for Sanford, is rapid forgiveness, and a relatively quick rehabilitation. Sanford's press conference (and his wife's statement) were a hell of a lot more genuine-seeming than the kinds of statements where people apologize "if anyone got hurt".
What gets to the right wing base is when they feel like they are being conned - when someone claims to have their principles, but then through actions, makes them doubt if they ever did in the first place. This is what happened with Bush's Dubai Ports betrayal, which many conservatives see as the beginning of Bush's downfall from a right-wing perspective. But this is not analogous to Sanford - his was a human downfall, a failure of his own principles.
Meanwhile, we we progressives have to think about is what this looks like for independents. Independents are likely finding Sanford's behavior and choices distasteful. But they're also going to find distasteful all the jokes and crowing among the left. All it's going to result in is a growing cynicism about politics in general - which ultimately hurts Obama.
I see a lot of front page defenses basically claiming, "It's not the salacious details we're hyping, it's the HYPOCRISY!" But there is really nothing constructive about pointing out the hypocrisy by underscoring all the salacious details. And telling a right-winger that if they can't control their own behavior they shouldn't judge ours... is a point that will have no resonance to them, because they will disagree with the entire premise. To them, championing a higher standard than they themselves can live up to is the entire point. It's the moral thing to do.
