Wallace had a habit of moving around politically to wherever seemed advantageous to his own prospects. By 1972 - thinking he had a chance at the nomination - he had dropped the overtly racist pseudo far-right schtick of '68 in favour of a more generic backlash-to-everything message (which still included a strong element of dog-whistling, naturally), with the aim of reaching out to a wider audience. Then he got shot.
Better than McGovern that's for sure. Although I could see a liberal third party bid mounted if he got the nomination.
