It's Too Late

A clarification that should have never been:

TPM asked McDonnell's office to clarify the "significant" statement. From his press secretary, Stacey Johnson:

The Governor issued the proclamation because the Civil War was the defining moment in our nation's history, and Virginia was at the center of that conflict as the Capitol of the Confederacy. The Governor's proclamation calls for appropriate thoughtful and serious reflection upon this period, and what it meant for our country and our Commonwealth. The Governor knows that slavery is a significant part of Virginia's history. Slavery was evil and it is a stain on the soul of our state and nation.

McDonnell's office can say whatever they want, but the damage will forever remain.

The terrible optics of even, EVEN, thinking about naming something Confederate in an endorsing way is beyond a level of stupid so unimaginable Webster and Oxford couldn't think of. It makes you look like, even if you aren't, a racist.

More importantly, this decision of celebrating the lives of those who fought for protect servitude makes one stunningly immune to an integral part of our nation's history.

That is the position McDonnell has placed himself, and those who back him in Virginia,in. And no clarification for a shocking idea still having its ripple effects will changed that in most rational minds.