The key bit starts at around 5:00 if you’re pressed for time. As predicted, she framed the decision (at around 6:45) as a gesture of unity to counter a bloody gesture of division. Among the luminaries onstage with her: Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and RNC chief Reince Priebus, who obviously wanted to make sure the media noticed the head of the national party lending his support to this decision.

Team Walker was ready with this as the presser concluded. I wonder if so much as a single candidate will remain agnostic, e.g., “I respect the decision of South Carolina’s leaders,” rather than endorsing Haley’s position outright.

I am glad @nikkihaley is calling for the Confederate flag to come down. I support her decision – SKW

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) June 22, 2015

And here’s Priebus’s statement:

RNC Chair Reince Priebus on Confederate Battle flag: "The flag has become too divisive" pic.twitter.com/iy0Ov4x9g2

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) June 22, 2015

Ace, although critical of the flag’s symbolism, does a nice job of capturing its general appeal as a symbol:

If I were to guess — I’m not southern, so I don’t know; I guess — I would guess that the real reason many support the flag is because they feel besieged, they feel demanded to apologize for things they never did, to view themselves, as a race, as “bad people”…

…and the flag represents, in three colors, the politically-important words “F***. You.”

Right, although a lot of black Americans at whom that message isn’t directed are also drawing a “f*** you” from it, as Ace laments. As for why a mass shooting somehow ended up turning into a debate about one flag on the state house grounds, John McCormack’s on the right track here:

Sad fact is that we're focusing on symbolism of flag because there's no policy proposal that could've stopped this particular massacre. 2/2

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) June 22, 2015

It was a standard handgun, so the calls for gun control fall flatter than usual.

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) June 22, 2015

Yeah, but even if Roof had carried an “assault weapon,” I think this still would have played out as it did. The left’s gun problem isn’t that he had the “wrong” type of gun, it’s that they’ve grudgingly accepted that nothing’s going to happen on gun control and it’s pointless to waste any more time on it. If they were going to try to demagogue righties this time, they’d need a new target. “Civility” and “rhetoric” are evergreen subjects for concern-trolling, but the best they could do this time was Trump rambling about Mexican rapists during his announcement speech, a topic far afield from Charleston. So they seized on the flag — and they did it, I think, fully expecting that Republicans would resist taking it down, as they’ve resisted in the past. We’re in the thick of primary season, they figured, so the GOP’s candidates will be reluctant to cross the base. Then, after Republicans double down on the flag, Democrats could use that to rally black voters to turn out for Hillary. That was the plan, which gave Republicans zero credit for being willing to revisit this issue and actually gave corporate America zero credit for being willing to twist arms, something that proved highly effective at moving politicians in the gay rights/RFRA context. If you doubt it, do a little tour around liberal Twitter this afternoon, where you’ll find various lefties eager to dump on Haley for acting so belatedly, never mind that southern Democrats have happily tolerated the Confederate flag for years in the interest of electability. If they were truly interested in having the flag removed, Haley’s announcement would be cause for congratulations. If they’re interested in what they hoped would be a useful wedge issue, then Haley’s announcement is cause for complaint. It’s not much different, really, from Planned Parenthood grumbling about a GOP bill to make access to over-the-counter birth control easier. The wedge is what’s important, not the policy.

Update: Hillary joins in, albeit more politely, with the left’s not-soon-enough complaint.

.@nikkihaley is right 2 call for removal of a symbol of hate in SC. As I’ve said for years, taking down Confederate flag is long overdue. –H

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 22, 2015