Gov George Wallace's daughter on President Obama:

[freshwest]

9. Wallace started out as a good guy, then took a bad path to get power, then returned to the light:

George Wallace



...Back in Montgomery, Wallace obtained a job as assistant attorney general. Just three months later he launched his political career with a bid for a seat in the state legislature. He was elected in 1947 and earned a reputation as a "dangerous liberal" at the capitol. In 1953 Wallace won election to a circuit judgeship that he held for six years. The same year Wallace began managing part of Governor "Big Jim" Folsom's re-election campaign. Folsom, a largely colorblind progressive, was to become Wallace's political mentor. However, times would change, and what had worked for Folsom would fail Wallace.

In 1958 Wallace entered the race for governor. Wallace thought he could remain a "moderate" on segregation and win. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Attorney General John Patterson, promoted segregation and anti-African-American policies and received the support of the Ku Klux Klan, while Wallace received the endorsement of the NAACP. Patterson defeated Wallace in a landslide...

Thanks to the passage of an Alabama Constitutional amendment, Wallace was re-elected to the governorship in 1974. During these consecutive administrations Wallace made a record educational appropriation; doubled health-care spending; increased old age pensions, unemployment compensation and workmen's compensation; and, as he had in his first term, worked to attract capital investment to the state.

In the years after the assassination attempt, Wallace's attitude toward racial issues underwent a dramatic change. The man who had once vowed "segregation forever" asked forgiveness of many people with whom he had clashed. Wallace was elected in 1982 to his last term as governor with strong support from African-American voters...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wallace/peopleevents/pande05.html