THE GREAT ROMANTICS

If you can forget for a second that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (right) is an adulterer, it's hard not to be smitten with the guy after reading those e-mails to his mistress Maria Belen Chapur. They're over the top, but they're supposed to be. That's what love letters are for. Absolutes. Exaggeration. Nonsensical promises. Mentions of eternity.

Romance, as it turns out, is not dead. It may be cheating on its wife, but it's not dead.