Republican anxiety over the Confederate flag revealed
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/republican-anxiety-over-the-confederate-flag-revealed/article/2566820
Just how worried were top Republicans that their White House hopes were on the verge of being derailed by an unexpected flap over the Confederate flag that flies over the state house grounds in South Carolina?...
Priebus, a northerner from Wisconsin, is the GOP's chief national fundraiser and is in charge of the preparing the party to compete for the presidency in 2016. He rarely involves himself in issues, let alone policy specific to individual states. Priebus needs the support of grassroots activists and donors with a broad range of viewpoints and geographic reach; he can't afford to alienate factions of the party.
But South Carolina is an early primary state that plays a regular host to the Republican presidential contenders, and questions about the flag threatened to distract from winning issues like the economy and national security, not to mention GOP attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The political sand-trap was almost impossible for the Republicans to avoid, and Priebus made an exception, referring to Haley's call to remove the flag "the right thing to do."
"This flag has become too divisive and too hurtful for too many of our fellow Americans," Priebus said in a statement. "While some say it represents different things to different people, there is no denying that it also represents serious divisions that must be mended in our society. For South Carolina, taking down this Confederate flag is a step in mending those divisions."
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