Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938), usually known as Pat Buchanan, is a conservative journalist and television political commentator from the United States. In 2000, he ran for President of the United States on the Reform Party ticket. He has previously run for President on Republican Party tickets, although he has never received that party's nomination.
Buchanan was born in Washington, D.C and educated in Roman Catholic schools before attending Georgetown University where he graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy. He then attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City where he earned a Master's Degree in Journalism in 1962. That same year he became an editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe Democrat newspaper.
Buchanan was an early supporter of Richard Nixon's political comeback, from 1966 on acting as advisor to Nixon's campaigns and accompanying Nixon to the White House in the role of advisor until 1974. He briefly continued in this role with Nixon's successor Gerald Ford.
After leaving political office, Pat Buchanan became a syndicated political columnist and began his regular appearances as a commentator on various national television news shows, including The McLaughlin Group and Crossfire.
Buchanan returned to the White House in 1985, serving as White House Communications Director during the Ronald Reagan administration until 1987.
In 1991 he unsuccessfully challenged George H. W. Bush for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, garnering some 3 million votes in primaries. He again tried for the Republican nomination in 1996, finishing second behind Bob Dole. In 2000 he successfully gained the nomination of the American Reform Party, and finished fourth. His nomination as Reform's leader was very controversial within the party, as many of the party's supporters did not see Buchanan's very conservative opinions as consistant with the party's previous platform, championed by the party's founder and previous leader, Ross Perot.
Buchanan has written five books on his political and religious views.
He currently co-hosts the hourlong, nightly talk-show "Buchanan and Press" on American cable channel MSNBC.
Buchanan's Politics
Although considered to be a staunch right-wing conservative, Buchanan believes the Republicans have largely abandoned their conservative principles, and are instead embracing bland, inoffensive centrist positions on most of the major issues. Many of his positions are in line with conservative U.S. Republicans of the first half of the 20th century, but have become uncommon in the Republican mainstream in recent generations.
Buchanan is an open isolationist, is in favor of severely restricting immigration into the United States, and of repealing NAFTA and raising tariffs on imported goods to protect domestic industry. He is also a harsh critic of American foreign policy and believes that most of America's international actions starting with World War 2 have been unjustified, being largely motivated by imperialist desires. Buchanan's belief that the German Nazi regime was not a threat to American interests or national safety have made some of his critics accuse him of being an apologist for the fascist state. One should note, Buchanan has at the same time said that the Holocaust was barbaric and a tragedy; he says his belief is on the argument that the Nazi regime in Germany and the Soviet regime in Russia would have in time annihilated each other.
Because of the way his views differ from those of "mainstream" conservatives, Buchanan is often described as a paleoconservative, referring to himself as a "traditional conservative".
See also: Reform Party, Soviet Canuckistan.