Despite his best efforts, Mark Sanford may be the luckiest politician around.

Yes, his affair was uncovered recently which forced a very public apology. And yes, his wife has kicked him out (temporarily) in the wake of the affair. Subsequently, Sanford has made some very strange moves. He has promised to release records and then backtracked. He has given confessional-style interviews talking about his former mistress as his “soulmate” and about other lustful times in his life.

With each growing day, the pressure for him to resign has been building, and if not for the news of the past two weeks, I think he would have already been forced into an early retirement.

But, first Michael Jackson died. That immediately took Sanford off the front page. Still, Sanford re-emerged the following week with his interview with the Associated Press. And again, the calls for his resignation got louder.

In fact, some were expecting that he might quit the day before July 4th. Then a funny thing happened. Sarah Palin dropped a bombshell. Not only is she not going to run for reelection, but she’s also resigning (by choice, not scandal) in three weeks.

And again, Sanford gets bumped from the front page. All political attention is focused very intently on Palin, her surprise decision, its implications, and her future.

Just think about the politicians that could have benefitted from that kind of luck. George Allen might have survived his 2006 Senate reelection bid if the media’s focus had been redirected away from his “macaca” moment. The same goes for Eliot Spitzer’s specatular fall from the governor’s mansion in New York.

The attention may shift back to Sanford. Or, perhaps the media’s love affair with his love affair is finally over. And that would make Sanford one lucky man.