Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992 TAG: 9201200199
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHLEEN DECKER LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, N.H. LENGTH: Long
PAT BUCHANAN CREATES HIS OWN CONTROVERSY
Patrick J. Buchanan clambered onto a truck bed in his elegant suit the other day and pulled the switch powering a massive searchlight. It scanned the skies over a down-at-the-heels former millyard."Where's George?" the conservative Republican presidential candidate taunted, his gaze following the beam of light into the empty darkness.
As Buchanan well knew, George - President Bush - was half a world away on a Far East mission that Buchanan had been criticizing all day before topping off his rhetoric with this visual flourish.
"It's like the old Batman signal," explained a Buchanan aide. "When Gotham City was in trouble, they called for Batman."
A few Buchanan supporters took up the chant: "Patman! Patman!"
Five weeks away from the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary, Pat Buchanan is using whatever it takes, from searchlights to more conventional political tactics, in what even he describes as a "long, long, long shot" bid to wrest the presidency from the grasp of his fellow Republican Bush.
Shaking hands in a grocery in Plymouth, touring an icy lumberyard in Rumney, fingering a newly constructed .44 pistol in a gun factory in Newport - "Go ahead, make my day," he said as he pulled the trigger - Buchanan is virtually ever-present in New Hampshire these days.
He can be biting, courtly, insulting, even charming, a one-time boxer who still exults at landing a body blow. At times, it appears that the state has been invited to be on one of those contentious cable television shows on which Buchanan, 53, gained fame before his Dec. 10 announcement for the presidency.
Controversy seems to swirl around him and much of it is self-inflicted, centering on his statements about race and ethnicity.
One night recently, after Buchanan strode into a Dartmouth University auditorium filled with several hundred students, someone yelled derisively, "Zulus!" The reference, which drew noticeable applause from some members of the audience, was to Buchanan's suggestion last December that the immigration of "Englishmen" rather than "Zulus" would "cause less problems for the people of Virginia," where he lives.
Undeterred by the outcry, Buchanan proceeded to pepper his remarks at Dartmouth with several racial references that many members of the crowd clearly found offensive.
He sniped at Jack Kemp, a fellow conservative who ran against Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. Kemp, now Bush's secretary of housing and urban development, has argued for the empowerment of the poor and minorities.
"Jack has gone native on us," Buchanan told the students. "He's down there wearing native garb."
Later, in a scalding denunciation of foreign aid, he called senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping "an 85-year-old chain-smoking Communist dwarf."
Asked by a student whether he meant to prey on racial fears, Buchanan responded, "I don't find anything wrong with humor."
In an interview, Buchanan denied that he is racist - or, as others have charged, anti-Semitic. At the same time, he said he has grave concerns about the presence of various ethnic groups in America and said those who refuse to "assimilate" pose a threat to the United States.
"We are a particular kind of country. We speak the English language," he said, adding: "All I'm saying is that while God may have - did make - all people good . . . we're not able to assimilate all peoples at the same rate."
" . . . My view is, I am against quotas. I am against court-ordered busing. I am against the government trying to rearrange communities into some racial grid. I believe in freedom of association. If people don't like it, they don't like it." Much of his criticism was aimed at Latinos.
"There's a demand by many, or some, Hispanics to retain Spanish as a separate language and to require it in various places . . . ," he said.
"People used to come here to become Americans . . . but a lot of folks are coming now, in the Southwest, coming to get the benefits of the welfare state," he added.
During his campaign stops, Buchanan rarely volunteers such comments. In this state, which is overwhelmingly white and whose Republicans are conservative, voters have gone along with Buchanan's attempt to keep his focus squarely on George Bush and the foundering economy.
Buchanan is drilling Bush for what he considers the president's greatest sins - abandoning his pledge not to raise taxes and failing to devise an economic-recovery plan.
Buchanan also overtly plays on Bush's frequent overseas travel, suggesting that the president has abandoned Americans. It is a message meant to strike a particularly strong chord in New Hampshire, whose first-in-the-nation primary resurrected Bush's 1988 campaign after an embarrassing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
"Thousands and thousands of jobs have been lost here," Buchanan told supporters gathered recently at the former millyard in Manchester.
"Mr. Bush has got to start looking out for America first."
When asked what he would do as president, however, Buchanan offers only a few general statements. Under the rubric "America First," he calls for sharp cutbacks in spending overseas - for defense and other foreign aid - and at home. He says he would cut taxes on the middle class, on savings and on investments.
Only rarely, usually in response to questions, will Buchanan enter the minefield of domestic concerns through which other presidential candidates warily tread - issues like health care, education, crime, homelessness or drugs.
At virtually every stop, for example, Buchanan is asked what he would do to ensure better medical care for Americans. Once, he hinted that he favors tax credits to pay for health insurance, and several times he said he opposes national health insurance. Other than that, he told voters to stay tuned.
It is hard to tell at this stage whether Buchanan's campaign is generating momentum or merely attention. Although there is little doubt that voters in New Hampshire are discontented, it remains to be seen whether they will give him enough votes to embarrass or, less likely, to beat Bush.
Buchanan's sister and campaign chairwoman, Angela "Bay" Buchanan, said it would be a "breakthrough" if her brother won more than 30 percent of the New Hampshire vote. But the candidate himself refused to speculate on the election.
Angela Buchanan, said the campaign has raised $750,000 and is aiming at $3 million, which it plans to spend mostly in the Northeast.
There is little indication, however, that Buchahan is well organized in any of the states whose primaries follow New Hampshire's. Although he has worked in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, Buchanan has never run for office. And, in addition to the enormous difficulties faced by any late-starting campaign, Buchanan's effort has lost its national pollster and strategist, Tony Fabrizio, who tossed in the towel earlier this month after disagreements with the candidate and his sister. Last Monday, Buchanan named Frank I. Luntz as his pollster and Ian and Betsy Weinschel as his media consultants.
Buchanan is rarely confident enough to suggest he will win New Hampshire, but he was practically buoyant recently after campaigning at businesses in the central and northwest part of the state, hit hard by recession for three years.
Egged on by Buchanan's questioning, normally taciturn New Hampshirites vented anger at Bush, blaming him for the fear that has pervaded their communities.
"These ideas are going to win," Buchanan said. "Whether I do or not."
\ The Republican Contenders\ George Bush
\ Date of birth: June 12, 1924
\ Home state: Texas.
\ Current job: U.S. president
\ Resume: Graduated from Yale University in 1948. World War II Navy pilot. Founded Zapata Petroleum Corp. in 1953. Congressman from Houston, 1967-71. U.S. ambassador to United Nations, 1971-72. National GOP chairman, 1973-74. U.S. envoy to China, 1974-75. CIA director, 1976-77. U.S. vice president, 1981-89. President, 1989-present.
\ Family: Wife, Barbara Pierce Bush. Four sons, one daughter.
\ Outlook: Starts his quest for re-election beset by a sputtering economy, plummeting approval ratings and a seven-man field of challengers - five Democrats and two Republicans.
Acknowledges he is hurt by country's economic slide but promises remedies in Jan. 28 State of the Union address. Also will run hard on foreign policy successes, including U.S. victory in Persian Gulf War.
Leads in most polls but must fight hard for a second term. Could be in danger if economy remains stagnant by the election. Leads in Texas, his adopted home state, although his defense cuts have angered thousands of jobless workers in Texas.
\ Pat Buchanan\ Date of birth: Nov. 2, 1938
\ Home state: Virginia
\ Current job: TV commentator
\ Resume: Graduated from Georgetown University in 1961. Master's degree in journalism, Columbia University, 1962. Special assistant to President Nixon, 1969-73. Communications director for President Reagan, 1985-87. Syndicated columnist, 1975-85. Co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," a political talk show, since 1982.
\ Family: Wife, Shelley Ann Buchanan. No children.
\ Outlook: Buchanan, 53, was initially perceived as a protest candidate who entered the race to underscore conservative disillusionment with the Republican president. But could cause Bush headaches by getting up to 30 percent of the Republican vote in the opening primary Feb. 18 in New Hampshire, a state hit hard by economic problems.
Espouses an "America First" theme, accusing Bush of turning his back on U.S. workers and conservative principles. A pet theme: the president's abandonment of his no-new-taxes pledge.
Popular among conservative true-believers and aided by high name identification from his TV shows. But lacks money and mainstream support. Bush strategists consider Buchanan the only genuine Republican challenger, dismissing former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke as a charlatan. But they say Buchanan has little staying power and will fizzle out after New Hampshire.
David Duke\ Date of birth: July 1, 1950
\ Home state: Louisiana
\ Current job: Outgoing state representative
\ Resume: Graduated from Louisiana State University in 1974. Elected to Louisiana Legislature in 1989. Owner of a computer service maintenance company. Member of Ku Klux Klan, 1967-80. KKK grand wizard, 1975-80. Founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People, 1980.
\ Family: Divorced, 1984. Two daughters.
\ Outlook: The 41-year-old former Nazi sympathizer and ex-Klan leader shocked the U.S. establishment by tapping into white middle-class disenchantment to become a serious challenger in the Louisiana governor's race last year. He lost. Now he wants to be president.
Duke insists he has put his extremism behind him, declaring, "I am not a racist." Portrays himself as a conservative populist who deplores big government, high taxes, welfare abuse and affirmative action.
Political leaders universally condemned his candidacy. Bush calls him a bigot and racist. Plans to run in at least 16 primaries but fighting his way in several states because candidacy not recognized. May form independent party if GOP campaign bombs.
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POLITICS