Patrick Buchanan

Patrick ("Pat") Buchanan is a political figure in the U.S., from the paleoconservative wing of American conservatism. He campaigned twice for the U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination, and was the U.S. Reform Party candidate in 2000. He is now a columnist in many outlets, a political analyst for MSNBC, chairman of The American Cause Foundation and an editor of The American Conservative.

Educated as a journalist, he became Richard Nixon's first full-time assistant in the 1966 campaign. He served in the Nixon White House from 1966 to 1974, and was Ronald Reagan's director of communications, 1985-1987. He was Reagan's main speechwriter and attended four summits, including Mr. Nixon’s historic opening to China in 1972, and Ronald Reagan’s Reykjavik summit in 1986 with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Post-Reagan

Leaving the White House, he challeged President George H. W. Bush in the Republican primaries, winning in New Hampshire.

Return to journalism

After 1974, he returned to journalism and occasional politics, including the first of the panel shows featuring heated argument: NBC’s The McLaughlin Group, and CNN’s Capital Gang and Crossfire.

2000 Election

Leading to Buchanan's 2000 run as the U.S. Reform Party candidate was Pat Choate's 1996 cabdicacy Ross Perot in 1996. In 1999, he was described as a "kingmaker" for rhw 100 attempt to build a left-right-center coalition. Choate worked with Bay Buchanan and Lenora Fulani, a figure of the left. He said "The unlikely threesome came together in the belief that party members' agreement on economic nationalism can outweigh their disagreements over social issues like abortion and gay rights." In 2000, the U.S. Reform Party, formed by H. Ross Perot in 1992, split, with Buchanan being the Presidential candidate of one faction. His chief strategist was his sister Bay Buchanan, a conservative activist; Peter Gemma was a senior assistant.

Many Al Gore supporters, such as Jesse Jackson, saw Buchanan as a spoiler, taking votes from their candidates.

Allegations of racism

While there is little question he is a nativist, he has been embroiled in charges and countercharges of racism, which he denies. He wrote, in March 2008, that Barack Obama had remained silent when his minister, Jeremiah White, had made allegations of white racism. "Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to." The Anti-Defamation League challenged his appearance on a radio show, "Political Cesspool" to promote his book, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, a show hosted by what ADL Executive Director Abraham Foxman white supremacist James Edwards. Foxman said "It's not as if he did this by accident,.... "Anyone who would have made inquiries into the nature of this program would have realized that it is an outlet for racism, anti-Semitism and hate."

Earlier, the ADL described him as having racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-immigrant views. At one time an influential staff member in the Nixon and Reagan Administrations, Buchanan has gone on to write a number of books and articles that focus on the decline of Western civilization due to what he refers to as the “invasion” of non-European immigrants in the United States and Europe." ADL also quotes Buchanan as saying "“They charge us with anti-Semitism…The truth is, those hurling these charges harbor a 'passionate attachment' to a nation not our own that causes them to subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption that, somehow, what's good for Israel is good for America.”

Education

Master's degree in journalism, Columbia University