Haley is a very good politician, she has this calculated sixteen ways from Thursday and has been burning up the phone lining up support.

I don't think she flip flopped as much as she got marching orders.

what party they associate themselves. I will give her credit for making the move to remove the flag.

They aren't calling to bring down the flag until there was an obvious and public revulsion of the flag. Its always been revolting to the public, and they have to know it. But since they're suddenly now saying "its time", 150 years after the fact, shows they don't give a hoot about the issue and they're just issuing lib service to not look like the racist troglodytes they are.

I'm not buying the broken clock is right twice a day nonsense.

We should all be rolling our eyes at Haley and heaping sarcastic scorn on her for taking this long.

Honestly, as a woman and Indian, Nikki Haley should have know better on day one and did something. But she didn't, she even defended it in October 2014.

Doing the right things for the wrong reasons doesn't make it right. What happens is history repeating itself because doing the right thing for the wrong reasons teaches the wrong lessons.

Thus removing the flag (right thing to do) because its political cover-your-ass, teaches politicians to CYA instead of doing their actual jobs.

been removed, where is the victory in having the flags removed if the same condemnation is given to Haley or anyone who changes their positions? GEEEEZ, Ted Cruz never thinks anything he says is wrong. So for you the flags are still flying.

And I'm sick of it.

What you're saying is its OK for a Republican to flip-flop, but we still endure accusations and attacks for our pols changing positions.

So its fair play, Nikki Haley, taking the flag down is good, she also should be tarred and feathered as a flip-flopper.

Its time for liberals to quit being nice to conservatives. We only lose ground that way.

republicans to flip-flop and not Democrats. Do you really want to have the flags keep on flying or are you willing for there to be a change and the flags to come down. Did Haley have input to the decision to fly the flags in the first place?
Why can't people accept changes without bitching. I listened to families talking to Roof, telling him they forgive him and they are forgiving him for taking the lives of their loved ones and you are having a hard time accepting the flag has been removed from the state house in SC?

You're being very myopic about that. Putting words in my mouth and dealing with your own made up absolutes.

I'm happy the flag is coming down, but I'm not going to let politicians off the hook for pulling the flag only because the political winds say so. Eight months ago Nikki Haley was defending flying that flag. Now she says its time to bring it down. 9 people had to die before she got the courage to do this?

And, by the way, McAuliffe, gets the same heat for pulling the flag off VA plates. Again, after 9 people die, he gets off his ass and does the right thing. People have been calling for these changes for years. But again, 9 people have to die before southern politicians can summon the courage to do these things, and only when a hurricane of political winds blowing in one direction.

Aren't you sick of politicians only doing things when people die?

Am I happy about anyone dying, hell no, it breaks my heart every time. Since I am also active in groups at a church the very last thing I would like to see happen is for another Roof to walk in and start shooting my club members.

Let me tell you something you can live by forever. You can't change your childhood, its over, gone, we do not repeat our childhoods, you can't change the past year, gone, done, over, you can't change last week, it is also gone, done and over, or yesterday, all gone but tomorrow when you wake up you can say this will be the best day of your life. You will be happier.

Now holding people responsible for their past decisions will probably continue because the best judge of the future is the past. Be happy eyes have been opened, be happy a good decision was made and let's go forward and work on other changes which needs to be made, don't sit on this one, it is but merrily a stepping stone to the next level.

There was no way South Carolina was going to dismantle that disgusting display without Republican officeholders getting out in front. Any unsupported attempt by decent people of good conscience was going to fail and further entrench opposition. Republicans were the ones keeping that display in place, and it wasn't going to budge without their buy-in, which means that some of them were going to have to flip-flop.

Who will be disappointed in this? Their erstwhile racist supporters. I'm less concerned about what might happen in a perfect world, and more concerned about actual, concrete results in this one. If that racist display comes down, I don't care if it's Lucifer himself at the controls of the crane. It needs to come down so that the capitol grounds in South Carolina are kept and maintained for all citizens, not just the retrograde bitter-enders of a thankfully lost cause.

Its a good first step.

I'm just annoyed at the soulless nature of the change. I fear nothing will be learned here.

I think the racists won't abandon the Republican party, they'll stay there and grumble and blame us liberals and everybody else for their jerky behavior.

But the flag should come down, if the SC assembly actually votes on it. Haley has no real power here, she can only use her bully pulpit. Hopefully it does, and if it does, its a good first step.

And I'm aware of Carnegie's dictum that "a man convinced against his will if of the same opinion still," but change has to manifest somewhere. It's clear that the political climate has changed sufficiently that some Republicans feel it's safer to advocate for removal than it is to maintain the status quo (or, if you prefer, more politically hazardous to maintain the status quo than to advocate for change). Whether that signifies a heart change, I don't know.

If ignorant racists don't abandon the Republicans, at least they'll find their political home a little less comfortable, and recruiting new blood to their position will be a little harder.

But we're not done yet in demanding and effecting change. The dog whistles are going to have to be re-pitched, because more people have been sensitized.