Photograph by Jonathan Becker, VOGUE (Sept. 2009).

The September 2009 issue of VOGUE features an article and several color photos of a professionally-styled and airbrushed Jenny Sanford (wife of the South Carolina governor who thinks he’s the Adonis of the Andes) posing in the entryway of her family’s beach house.

The photo captions accompanying the nothing-new-here article are more a litany of wardrobe credits to this and that designer than about Ms. Sanford.  But here’s where the real news value is:  Far from being a campaign by Ms. Sanford to persuade the Latin-lover obsessed louse to “try and fall back in love with her,” this is Jenny Sullivan Sanford, DARE-borne.  Or re-born.

Many praised Ms. Sanford when she stayed away from the “penance pulpit” as her husband performed his remorse revue—solo—for days on end.  In fact, her refusal to be part of his melodrama was just a preview of her own proactive and brilliant “F-U” marketing strategy, one of the best examples of personal branding I’ve ever seen.

Jennifer “Jenny” Sullivan was an investment banker in a top firm when she met Mark Sanford.  She went on to mastermind every successful political move he has ever made, orchestrating and funding his campaigns, boosting his PAC money, crafting his consensus-generating rhetoric.  In several recent interviews about her husband’s public offenses, she has been brutally candid that her initial attraction to Sanford was not about “love at first sight,” and she related with undisguised “what was he thinking?” distaste how he chose the week after she had given birth to their second child to pronounce that he wanted her to help him run for major public office.   She has said countless times that now more than ever her four sons are her top priority.  One might easily conclude that divorce would not be a difficult proposition for Jenny Sanford financially or otherwise.

Many other women, regardless of their earning potential, stand to fare far worse financially after a divorce than men do.  What’s more, they often lose the social, business, and community connections they’ve built through marriage.

This is not a good thing, regardless of the current economy.  All the more reason why all women—especially those over 40—should keep Jenny Sanford on their radar.

As Ms. Sanford was going about the meticulous crafting of her husband’s political career, she also was steadfast about piloting her own career—as a wife, mother, and political figure.  She made certain she never took her eyes off her own oxygen mask.  Now, instead of playing the role of the tragic soprano to her husband’s tempestuous tenor (would he never shut up?) in his tawdry telenovela, she’s busy getting ready for her own close-up, where she’s the one in the spotlight, and making sure she gets the best lighting possible.

Don’t cry for her, Argentina, indeed!  Jenny Sanford is becoming DARE-borne, her wheels and her middle finger confidently poised for takeoff.  DARE her on!