^This. And we aren't just talking about freaking restaurants. Imagine being in a wreck and having a life threatening injuring and being forced to bypass a hospital 15 minutes away and having to go to an inferior one an hour away because the closest one didn't allow blacks in? Would any sane person accept a situation like that just so that he could keep some goofball klansman out of his restaurant? And the civil rights act does not apply to social club membership! A white restaurant owner can keep members of the Black Panthers or even the NAACP out of his restaurant without triggering an NAACP challenge as long as it is clear that membership in the private group, and not race, is the reason for the discrimination. That John Stossel argument was retarded. I don't know why so many libertarians thought it was "sooooo cool!"
The constitutional argument, that the federal government doesn't have authority under the interstate commerce clause to regulate a local private business, is the only one that's even possibly palatable to most people. But the problem is, most people don't have a clue about the interstate commerce clause and what it means. So...the easiest smartest thing Rand can do politically is to just "celebrate" the CRA. If/when people bring up his earlier criticism, he can just say "I was attempting to make a legal point about the commerce clause that many people apparently didn't understand, but I fully support the results of the CRA." If someone asks about the commerce clause he can expound on that then. If not, then move on with the rest of the interview.