"George Wallace, whose segregationist policies were idiotic (but he was not a socialist), would have won the '72 Dem. nomination if Bremer hadn't shot him."
I doubt this is correct.
I know it seems surprising, but Wallace was actually leading in the polls when Bremer shot him. Consider who he was running against (Muskie and McGovern).
He was coming on strong, surprising a lot of people. Not because of the segregation thing, though.
Oh it's correct alright
Most of the Reagan Democrats of the 80s had been Wallace Democrats in 1972. Wallace was very popular with organized labor, because not only was he a populist on economics, but he was also a conservative on social matters. Surprisingly (or not) enough, Wallace had a friend in Richard Daley Sr.
When Daley gave his moronic speech where he said all handguns should be outlawed (in 1972) the reason he said they should be outlawed is because a "maniac" had used one to make an attempt on the life of such a great statesmen as Wallace
It's widely believed in Alabama that Wallace had made a deal with Daley, and its not as if Daley and Wallace didn't sympathize with each other anyway
With the support of working-class whites and Southerners, Wallace would have definitely taken the Democratic nomination, and Wallace would have posed a very serious threat to Nixon
Because with Wallace at the top, the Democrats would have won every former Confederate State, Oklahoma, they would have run real strong in Indiana, they would have taken Michigan, Illinois, very probably Ohio and Pennsylvania. Basically, in 1972, the economy was not doing well, and Wallace's populist rhetoric would have been very popular against Nixon. Add to the fact that there ain't no way you could paint George Wallace as a liberal, and Nixon would have been on shaky ground.
It's my personal belief that Wallace would have been elected President had he not been shot. Wallace would have been able to attack Nixon from both the left and the right at the same time, and Wallace on the ticket would have assured that the few Republicans that did hold office in the South that were up for re-election, would have lost their seats in short order.
its for this reason that I believe that while Bremer did act alone, someone in the secret service set it up so that Wallace could be shot. They knew who Bremer was, as he was following Wallace across the country, and they certainly knew that the guy was a screwball, and given the thoroughness of investigations during the Nixon admin, they certainly knew he was packing heat.
Also, in 1972, Wallace was not running on segregation, as he formally gave that up in his 1971 inauguration speech