But what insults about it is that — lost in rote accusations of “racism blah blah GOP base blah blah” — we will avoid discussion of Nikki Haley’s real sin: holding her voters either in such contempt, or fear, that she can’t confidently state a simple truth. The real gaffe Haley committed on Wednesday was that, when she froze up under an unpredicted question and defaulted to her factory settings in answering, those answers demonstrated such contempt for the intelligence of her voters. We can be told the Civil War was about slavery, Nikki — we’re all adults here. Few politicians look good when caught nakedly pandering in public, but Nikki Haley wears the look witheringly poorly — it knocks out one of the key underlying struts currently upholding her fragile public brand. That’s why this little gaffe, however minor, memorably reveals something about Haley; we rarely get such accidental insight into how little politicians think of their own voters.

[I am not sure if Haley’s sin is contempt or cravenness. I opted for the latter in my piece earlier, but it could be both. — Ed]