Walker needs to bone up on his American history

The Journal Sentinel says Walker "deferred" on whether the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism.

His moral and educational deficits are on full, embarrassing display - - unlike, say, Mitt Romney's.

If Walker has a spare moment on the campaign jet back to Wisconsin, and the talking points and tracking polls have been vetted, rehearsed and put to bed, he might take a few minutes to read through this essay about the history and meaning and use of the flag:

The flag was based on the saltire, a common flag symbol sometimes called the Southern Cross. As historian John Coski writes in The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem, Southerners weren't shy about enlisting the design in the cause of white supremacy. In 1863, the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger wrote that the flag's Southern Cross pointed to "the destiny of the Southern master and his African slave" — the Confederacy's hoped-for expansion of slavery into Latin America.

Or, Walker could festoon his website, Twitter account and Facebook page with images of the flag and have the teachable moment he seems to be asking for.

In the same Journal Sentinel piece, Walker also said:

Talking to reporters a short time later, Walker said the shootings were an act of "racism" and "pure evil" and "all of us regardless of party or background need to denounce not only the act itself but the beliefs" behind it.

But not the symbols that the evil racist has hailed, and which has been used for decades to inflame and justify the continuing racist evil.

Walker also said:

"I think there is a very real concern that needs to be addressed in America about race relations. And I think we need to do more, I think as Americans as a whole, we need to do more to talk about how to unite people in this country."

Perhaps he would like to tell how he plans to do more to "unite people" on these issues, and will be begin by acknowledging that his recent dog-whistling to conservative voters on race - - more examples - - have been insensitive and divisive?