The Washington Post editorial board pronounced Friday that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has miraculously come “back from the political dead.”
Northam, according to the Post, has fully redeemed himself only ten months after supporting legislation that would allow a woman to terminate her baby’s life after he or she is delivered, and following the discovery he appeared in blackface in his medical school yearbook photo.
The editors at the Post simply sidestepped any mention of the infanticide scandal and focused purely on what was of importance to them – that Northam has managed to defy all odds by recovering from “racist conduct.”
The paper determined the Democrat governor has apparently apologized sufficiently and engaged in enough acts of “racial equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion” to cancel all the calls for his resignation – including the one from the Post itself.
In February, the editors had cast Northam aside for good, deciding his “racist conduct” was unforgiveable.
“What’s done cannot be undone,” the editorial board pronounced. “He must go.”
Now, however, the Post describes with the greatest of empathy the turmoil Northam endured in making a “comeback” that was “hard-earned”:
Throughout, Mr. Northam, a self-effacing pediatric neurologist, has expressed remorse and projected what many Virginians regard as genuine humility. “I’ve had to confront some painful truths,” he said in August at an event commemorating the arrival 400 years ago of the first African slaves in North America, where Hampton, Va., is today. “Among those truths was my own incomplete understanding involving race and equity.”
In a tweet linking to the editorial highlighting Northam’s “redemption,” Post political columnist Karen Tumulty confessed both she and her paper “were wrong” in their earlier verdict that Northam “must go”:
But, apparently, only left-wing politicians can be redeemed in Tumulty’s world.
After tweeting a plug for the classic Christmas film Holiday Inn, she then announced she was taking it back because she “misremembered” it contained a blackface musical number:
“Was settling in to watch ‘Holiday Inn’ for the first time in years, and had completely forgotten the scene in black face, which I misremembered as being in another movie,” she said. “Taking this one off the list. Sorry, Fred and Bing.”
Cliff Sims, former director of White House Message Strategy, drew attention to the columnist’s double standard:
“So, four days ago @ktumulty wanted to cancel Bing Crosby, but today wants to un-cancel the blackface-wearing, anti-Second Amendment, pro-infanticide, Democrat Governor of Virginia,” Sims noted. “Makes sense.”