Nikki Haley For VP

The nation's eyes were on South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Monday, June 22nd, when she said it was time for South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from its Statehouse grounds. It was a reversal for Haley from her previous position on the flag, and it came after momentum for taking the flag down had been building for days since last week's racially-driven church massacre in Charleston, putting her behind or at least in the middle of that accelerating effort. It was a profile in courage, especially in front of her own constituents.

But while that might be the backstory, what viewers across the country saw was Haley presenting her case well on Monday as she said it was time for South Carolina to move past the Confederate flag. By doing this, she also simultaneously provided cover on the issue for national Republicans and for the GOP presidential candidates, some of whom quickly backed her position after having publicly waffled on it over the past few days, and boosted her national profile, with Variety reporting that before the press conference was over, there was talk on social media about her being a prime 2016 Republican vice presidential candidate.

That may be premature, but what's true is that a lot more Americans outside of South Carolina know her name today than did before, and what they saw was a 43-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants speaking about how the Confederate flag is hurtful to many. Young, female and minority are the kind of voters the GOP has trouble attracting these days, and having Haley with a national platform could help appeal to all of them. Odds are that after Monday, Americans will be seeing Nikki Haley again.