Well, don't blame those people who aren't convinced. Here's Michael Paul Williams's take:
Sorry. Not buying it.Only Allen knows what's in his heart. But from where I sit, this looks like an Allen image makeover as he eyes the White House. Call it conservatism with an emphasis on the con.
Allen has some work to do with his makeover.
Perhaps he took stock of his presidential ambitions and realized his record and personal history more resembled that of a Dixiecrat than the "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative" he touts himself as.It's not only his vote against a holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while in the Virginia House of Delegates. Or his consistently low rating by civil-rights groups. Or his issuance while governor of a Confederate History Month proclamation exalting the South's "four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights."
...
The article also detailed Allen's painting of anti-white graffiti on his high school to fire up his classmates before a game against a mostly black high school -- an incident Allen described as "a stupid prank" when it first came up during his 2000 Senate campaign.
"I generally bucked authority and the rebel flag was just a way to express that attitude," Allen said in a written statement to the magazine. "Life is a learning experience and I have learned quite a bit in the ensuing 36 years."
But well into his political career, Allen hadn't learned enough not to hang a Confederate flag in his rural log cabin or decorate his law office with a hangman's noose.
His explanation to the magazine doesn't wash with anyone who recalls the late'60s, the time Allen attended high school.
Youths across America "bucked authority" by growing their hair long, burning their draft cards and protesting war and racism. Allen's expression of rebellion was an unabashed romance with Johnny Reb?
Given his voting record, Allen's conversion to civil-rights sympathizer was already a tough sell.
Some folks always would suspect his trip to Farmville was driven less by epiphany than expediency. But with a national magazine casting him in such an unflattering light, this presidential aspirant finds himself in an unenviable position.
When it comes to race, Allen has more baggage than Samsonite. He might want to pack it in.
Good luck with that makeover, Senator.