"Jorge R. Frank" wrote:

(Eric Chomko) wrote in
:

Jorge R. Frank ) wrote:
: (Eric Chomko) wrote in
: :

: I thought only liberal politicians get assassinated?

: All kinds of politicians get shot at, but liberals seem to have a
: higher mortality rate. Compare Wallace, Ford, and Reagan to JFK and
: RFK, frex...

Didn't Wallace turn into a bleeding heart (figuratively) on this death
bed?

Only on this issue of race; he remained a populist-conservative on most
other issues.

He flipped around on race right from the beginning. He lost an early election
in Alabama against a hardline segregationist and was reported to have said
that he would never be "out-segged" again. He ran for governor and won
as a strong segregationist who said "He would stand in the schoolhouse door
and go to jail" before allowing Alabama schools to be de-segregated. He
did stand in the door, but had better discretion than keeping his pledge about
going to jail.

I was living in Huntsville, Alabama after he was elected and heard a number
of his rabble rousing speeches. I assumed he would make a fool of himself
on a national scale, but he changed his pitch completely outside of the
South. He pushed segregationist views, but moderated his statements and
sounded much like any other Southern Democratic politician, less rabid
than a lot of them.

His conversion to integration seems to have coincided with civil rights
legislation that guaranteed black voting rights and a large increase in
the number of black voters in Alabama. He won his last term as
governor with strong black support as he had completely changed his
tune.

George Wallace was a political chameleon. I rate him as quite
low in real political principles.

Mike Walsh