The 2,000-plus miles of the Appalachian Trail might be considered a brisk stroll in comparison to the long verbal road South Carolina governor Mark Sanford took in today’s press conference, before finally admitting that his mysterious 7-day disappearance from the state was related to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

He didn’t have much choice.  Once he was surprised by a local reporter at the Atlanta airport (where he’d hoped to evade notice), there was no way to keep the media from dissecting clues about where he’d been, and no plausible cover story he could tell to end the speculation (especially since the real story was already leaking out).

It’s amusing, though, that Sanford implied in the press conference that he was down in Buenos Aires putting an end to the affair.  Seven days seems like an awfully long time to spend breaking up, y’know?