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You wouldn't know bigotry if it walked up to you and slapped you in the face. You think that General Curtis E. LeMay would have signed on to a presidential ticket if he believed that Governor Wallace was a bigot?

The '68 campaign was about resisting the ever expanding role of the federal government which had reached gargantuan proportions thanks to LBJ's (not so) Great Society, and Nixon (as history proves) continued to expand the role of government in each and every part of our lives.

As surprising as it may be for you, Wallace's first run for Governor of Alabama included a platform position in FAVOR of integration, and he was defeated for it and for what was perceived to be his LIBERAL tendencies as a circuit court judge.

Here, chew on these Wallace quotes:

1966 - "We’ll use the power and prestige of the governor’s office to try to awaken the American people to the trends that are rampant in our country, a trend that says we must fight the Communists in Vietnam while at the same time the Communist-controlled beatnik mobs in the streets influence national affairs in Washington, D.C."

1967- "I have never made a derogatory remark about one of God’s children and I never will. If I am elected, I am going to treat all fairly."

1968- ""And it is a sad day in our country that you cannot walk even in your neighborhoods at night or even in the daytime because both national parties, in the last number of years, have kowtowed to every group of anarchists that have roamed the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles and throughout the country. And now they have created themselves a Frankenstein monster, and the chickens are coming home to roost all over this country." "Yes, they’ve looked down their nose at you and me a long time. They’ve called us rednecks -- the Republicans and the Democrats. Well, we’re going to show, there sure are a lot of rednecks in this country."

1971- (Inaugural speech as Governor) "Our state government is for all -- so let us join together, for Alabama belongs to all of us -- black and white, young and old, rich and poor alike."

And among his final words before his death?

"I don’t hate blacks. The day I said ‘segregation forever,’ I never said a thing that would upset a black person unless it was [the word] segregation. I never made fun of ‘em about inequality and all that kind of stuff. But my vehemence was against the federal government folks. I didn’t make people get mad against black people. I made ‘em get mad against the courts."

Need more Bucky?

George Wallace made Richard Nixon's enemies list.

Imagine that while you bask in your ignorance.