My father called me just now from Florida wanting to know where the South Carolina governor was.

By now Gov. Mark Sanford has been located - the Appalachian Trail. But in a few short days his unexplained absence turned into a weirdly risque national spectacle. 

But did anyone other than political operatives and journalists actually care?

I called barber shops, landscaping services, electronics repair stores and university students. What I gathered is this: Regular folks couldn't be bothered with this story. They were cutting hair, watching gas prices go up, ticking off their work-study hours, etc.

Take Shanna Moody. She couldn't care less if Sanford took a few days off and didn't tell people.
"We've got other things to worry about besides the governor missing," said Moody, who works at Moody's Barber Shop in Aiken.
"The media makes a big fuss over everything," she added. "People have their own lives to live."

Meanwhile, one of Sanford's defenders, Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, had this to say:

“The loudest yelps of concern for gubernatorial authority come from the same people who take every opportunity to destroy that authority. The notion that these people worry about whether or not Governor Sanford needs to sit by the phone waiting to wield his nickel’s worth of power only adds insult to injury.”

What do you think, dear readers? Was this a manufactured crisis designed to make the governor look like a wandering, possibly naked looney tune? Is the controversy worth covering regardless of popular interest? Should Sanford have simply told people where he was going, an act that most 12-year-olds can manage?