New York Magazine - USA (2019-09-16)

september16–29, 2019 | newyork 11

inside: An intelligentsia party report / A civics lesson from skateboarders / Fashion Week in Flatbush / Constructing the city’s tallest building

REDUX

Photograph by Mark Peterson

the road back to the campaign trail begins with the Look. Do you

know the one I mean? The Look is one of searching, of scanning, of

wanting. For half a second, the eyes swell with hope—cartoonish,

glassy. Every passing person presents an opportunity. Do you know me?

the eyes ask. Can I shake your hand, slap your back, kiss your baby?

Mark Sanford was giving the Look left and right. In the direction

of the young couple sitting in a hammock. An older couple on a

bench. A man approaching on his jog. A golden retriever.

It was dusk in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, the suburban town

six miles from downtown Charleston where Sanford lives. A short

drive from his house, there’s the ocean walk—a beautiful stretch of

pavement and palmetto-studded grass that extends through the

marsh to a pier on the Cooper River. Sanford walked along the path

in his flip-flops. He was preparing for a trip to Iowa, a euphemism for

declaring your candidacy for your party’s presidential nomination.

Some people recognized him, even offered words of encouragement.

The Swamp:

Olivia Nuzzi

Party of One

Is Mark Sanford’s

quest for the mythical

reluc t ant Tr ump

voter noble or pathetic?