The Confederate flag flying at the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, has been a matter of controversy for much longer than Nikki Haley’s four and a half years as the state’s governor. Her newfound determination to seek its removal, amid the public clamor after a neoconfederate gunned down nine people at a historic black church in Charleston last week, has been applauded in the political media as an act of courage and a coup for her professional prospects.

She'll be on veep shortlist and almost certainly in next GOP cabinet https://t.co/hioo8aoXri — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) June 22, 2015

Nikki Haley continues to impress. Poised, thoughtful and empathetic. — Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) June 22, 2015

This feels like a good moment for Nikki Haley's VP prospects..... — Lisa Lerer (@llerer) June 22, 2015

Nikki Haley instantly becomes a leading VP contender with this announcement http://t.co/7oWEUbSCHs — Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) June 22, 2015

None of these interpretations is correct. The correct interpretation came from Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston.

This, from @hunterw, is inarguable. Most GOP WH candidates were cowards. And let's deify @nikkihaley now? What? https://t.co/zqv3dkKPOx — Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) June 22, 2015

Haley’s change of heart wasn’t the result of a moral epiphany, or even really an admission that the people who’ve been seeking the flag’s removal for years were right all along.

It was undertaken largely as an act of damage control on behalf of Republican presidential primary candidates who were so frozen in terror at the thought of risking South Carolina’s pro-Confederacy vote that they couldn’t articulate whether they believed the flag should come down or not. Haley needed to cut a path along which they could escape further damage, but she did so grudgingly, and expressed something close to bewilderment at those who found the flag abhorrent well before the Emanuel AME shooting made it a sorer spot than usual.

“To those outside of our state, the flag may be nothing more than a symbol of the worst of America’s past,” Haley said. “That is not what it is to many South Carolinians.”