Allen Manages to Create a Diversion

Sen. George Allen with his wife, Susan Allen, who stood by him and spoke up for him as he was beset by questions about racial bias and insensitivity. (Associated Press)

Suddenly, macaca, Jewish heritage and racial slurs are yesterday's news. Look through Virginia's newspapers, look even at the partisan blogs that relish hitting Sen. George Allen as hard as they can: The feeding frenzy has subsided. The waters seem almost calm again.

The Allen campaign must be, as the senator's ancestors might have put it, kvelling (Yiddish for bursting with pride.) Without going through the ritual Oprah-style confessional purification, Allen and his strategists have managed to steer attention away from his awful few weeks and back onto far more comfortable turf for the one-term senator who still harbors hopes of becoming president.

How did the Allen camp achieve this remarkable turnaround? Simple. They announced that they were changing the subject. All it took was a few moves, none of them particularly exotic:

· Allen launched an "Issues, Ideas and Record Tour" of friendly locales where he talked, albeit without many specifics, about "issues."

· The campaign announced that the senator would go on TV -- not to address claims that in college he regularly used racial slurs, not to justify his verbal attack on an Indian American working for his opponent's campaign and not to explain why he reacted so negatively when asked about his family's Jewish background. No, all the campaign said was that Allen would make a "major address." That the two-minute TV ad was neither major nor much of an address didn't matter; the moment became a turning point in the Allen campaign.

· Allen strategists rolled out the candidate's wife to stand by his side -- literally -- during the "major address," smiling admiringly. Then Susan Allen sat for a Washington Post interview that helped soften the senator's image.

· Day after day, Allen presented new endorsements from blacks -- a Democratic legislator, ministers, community leaders. Message: It's okay to go back in the water.

All of this dovetailed beautifully with the Allen campaign's new offensive, a redoubled attack on Democratic challenger Jim Webb for being anti-woman because of a 27-year-old magazine piece Webb wrote arguing against enrolling women at the U.S. Naval Academy. Webb responded reasonably effectively to Allen's TV ad, but it hardly mattered. The subject had been changed.