RICHMOND, VA Feb. 2 (DPI) – Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is under huge pressure to resign today following revelations that his 1984 medical school yearbook page featured a racist image of two men – one of them dressed in blackface and the other dressed in a white KKK robe.

The Washington Post report on the matter – which emerged only on Friday, a year into Northam’s four-year term – included more than 15,000 reader comments as of 9am Saturday, most of them either denouncing Northam and calling for his resignation, or debating whether there was room for forgiveness for a 35-year-old photo that Northam acknowledges he posed for.

Northam apologized immediately for the photo – but that’s not likely to be enough to weather the broad, national reaction, much of it from Democratic presidential candidates.

The matter raised several questions – not simply what was going on with Ralph Northam in his youth, but also why the Democratic Party would field a candidate for governor whose graduation yearbook pages hadn’t been inspected prior to running for state office. As a longtime colleague of Northam’s told The Post, “this kind of thing should have come out sooner.”

Northam, 59 and a pediatric neurologist, entered politics only about ten years ago.  He was recruited to run as a state delegate by a Democratic strategist who is African American, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Notably, The New York Times report on the matter included no comment section, nor did the Richmond Times Dispatch site.

This comment was the most popular on WashingtonPost.com this morning:

It’s not ok.  This isn’t 1950.   In 1986 I went to college at Johns Hopkins University.  No one dressed in blackface.  No one wore hoods.  No one even thought such a thing would be a good idea.
This is not ok.  It’s not ok with our racist president, and it’s not ok with the Va governor.