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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRalph Northam will 'put Virginia first' and resign as governor, Democrat says
Source: The Guardian
Former governor Terry McAuliffe: Ralph is a good, moral man
Press conference and Michael Jackson story add to controversy
Martin Pengelly in New York
Sun 3 Feb 2019 18.42 GMT
Ralph Northam will put Virginia first and resign as governor, a predecessor and friend of the embattled Democrat said on Sunday, two days after the release of a racist photo from a college yearbook pitched the state into chaos.
Ralph is a good, decent, moral man and may have made a mistake, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe told CNNs State of the Union. Ralph will put Virginia first and I think he will do so soon.
The picture is from Northams page in a 1984 yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School. It shows two men, one in blackface, one dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and it was released by Big League Politics, a website founded by former employees of the far-right Breitbart News.
On Friday, Northam said he was in the picture although he did not know which man was him. On Saturday, at a press conference in Richmond, he reversed and said he was not in the picture and had never seen the yearbook before its release this week.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/03/ralph-northam-kaine-warner-trump
Response to Eugene (Original post)
WhiskeyGrinder This message was self-deleted by its author.
dalton99a
(81,515 posts)Jarqui
(10,126 posts)He was meeting with staff to determine what he was going to do this evening.
The meeting has wrapped up but no conclusion has been reported that I've seen yet
Maybe soon ...
manor321
(3,344 posts)And he gives out laundry tips on how to keep the sheets looking their whitest.
That would be about as bad as what he did yesterday.
JI7
(89,252 posts)insist on getting the final stand on this.
monmouth4
(9,708 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)And seemed like he was priming us for some Michael Jackson blackface that could come out
What a mess. He knew his base and expected the lame prove it was me excuse to go over . Insulting at the end
Close to 60 % of whites in the state voted R, over 85% of blacks voted D
Kos had a good editorial on how the heck could anyone rationalize this ?
Xxxxxxx
But beyond that, our fucking country is at stake. Virginia is a must-win presidential state for Democrats. Yet how can our nominee campaign in the state with Northams toxic presence casting a pall?
We have an excellent chance to take control of the Virginia legislature this year, but how can down-ballot Democrats campaign without having to answer questions about Northam daily? How can they work to win over crucial black voters if the party thinks its okay for Northam to remain on the job?
I see lots of white people saying they forgive Northam. But its not white peoples forgiveness that Northam needs.
Aside from the morality of the situation, its a political death sentence to the Virginia Democratic Party, in a state in which 20 percent of the population is black. White voters voted for the Republican candidate for governor 57-42. It was black voterschoosing Northam 87-12who elected him governor. Same story in the 2016 presidential election: White voters opted for Trump 59-35, yet black voters opted for Hillary Clinton 88-9.
Even if youre so tone-deaf on race that you dont realize how damaging the facts of this case are (and too many of you distressingly are), then at least be motivated by the simple need to actually win in Virginia, both this November and in next years presidential contest.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/1/1831572/-Why-in-the-hell-would-anyone-try-to-rationalize-racism