Why Bob Dole over PJB in 1996?

[DeathTaxesNoles]

I am just getting big into politics and do not remember the primaries of '95.  I think Pat won a state in the Northeast to start it off, didn't he?  How and why did bobdole pull ahead?

[belgrade53]

Pat did won the state of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, he wound up losing to Bob Dole in the Republican primary and I believe he was in second place behind Dole. Had Buchanan won the presidency, our immigration system will be solved and illegal immigration will be the thing of the past. I wish he's our president for 8 years!

[belgrade53]

BTW, how old is Pat Buchanan?

[Dan_R.]

While it still would have been a long-shot for Pat to have beaten Dole in 1996 for the nomination, a series of events occurred at that time which I'll never forget.

Pat had begun to accumulate a series of upsets, beginning with small victories in Alaska and Louisiana, which as I recall may have even been "straw poll" type events.  Small though they were, the Louisiana victory was the event which caused Phil Gramm to withdraw from the race.  And then of course came New Hampshire!

New Hampshire was major!  And with that victory Pat suddenly appeared on the covers of the mainstream magazines.  Most came with an ominous tone, exemplified by the Economist cover, which featured a full cover photo of a somewhat grim-faced Buchanan, with the caption "Voice of America?"  NPR's "All Things Considered" ran pro and con commentaries on Pat, with Sam Francis arguing the positive side of Pat's victory, and the woman from a Texas newspaper whose name I can't remember--she was one of the "regional editors" on the McNeill-Lehrer show--recalling how she used to edit Pat's columns in his early days and was appalled at some of the things he wrote which she had to cut (never bothered to provide specifics, however).

And then the Republican Party stepped in the fray, with William Bennett arguing that Pat's politics were that of a proto-fascist!  Others chimed in as well and for the first time I got the feeling that, even if Pat were to win the nomination, these "conservatives" would sooner vote for Clinton in the general election than support Buchanan.

And then the press conference, where Bob Dole lined up all the big-wigs of the Republican establishment, who came out with a joint endorsement of his candidacy.  Newt Gingrich was in the forefront, along with Phil Gramm.  Gramm and Dole not very subtly accused Buchanan of racism, with Gramm dredging up an incident in Louisiana about his wife, who is of Korean ancestry.  Basically it began to take on the quality of a purge.

A footnote in all of this is the role of Rush Limbaugh, about whom, at this point, my opinion changed decisively.  Rush, who had been wined and dined for several years by the likes of Bennet and was by this time a darling of the Republican establishment, took an allegedly neutral position.  He wouldn't endorse anyone and certainly had his criticisms of Dole, but clearly relished taking on Pat, particularly on the issue of free trade--in fact ONLY on the issue of free trade.  Take away that issue and at the time it seemed there was far greater agreement between Rush and Pat than Rush with Dole, but Rush couldn't get off it.  His neutrality took on the quality of malice when he ignored what had to be the worst slandering of a fellow Republican in many years.  Just before the New York primary, Al D'Amato proclaimed his thorough distaste for the Buchanan candidacy, declaring him to be "anti-black, anti-woman, and anti-gay."  Rush's reaction to this was to declare it an unfortunate misunderstanding, rather than the obvious continuation of Pat's excommunication from the Republican Party.

In sum, it was the most concentrated attack I'd ever seen on a Republican, with the most guilty parties being fellow Republicans!  And in this atmosphere an chance of a Buchanan victory was quelched.

Why it happened is a matter for another topic, but in a nutshell I think it had to do with the idea that the Republican Party was now wedded to ideas of globalism and political correctness--that as part of the American ruling elite they must adhere to what are the "mainstream" ideas of that elite--and their purge was a pronouncement--in effect a compliment--that Pat was not to be trusted on these matters.

1996 was a formative year for me politically, a recognition of the nature of the Republican Party.  I did not vote for Dole in the general election and haven't voted Republican since.  

[BB_NewYork]

Dan R. has a great memory and insight on Buchanan's character assassination in 1996, which also continued more feverishly in 2000. The Limbaugh ego pursued a confrontation with PJB with the prospects of gaining an intellectual victory to feed on. Problem was that Buchanan was too correct on Free Trade, Immigration, Affirmitative Action/Quotas, Foreign Policy to make any reasonable assault. Limbaugh was simply outclassed on the issues, so the only means of victory would be a character assault. This means if you wrote a book, out of context quotations can be used to support the hypotheses, conjecture of the spin doctors. If you speak at a university of questionable ideals...... we all know the story.

I can't wait to get my hands on PJB's new one "Death of the West" !

Whomever has the voodoo doll of Rush Limbaugh has placed the pin in the right place.

[nachtigall]

Allow me to pile on.

A number of years ago, I recall Limbaugh fielding on the radio the curious subject of WWII gas chambers and Zyklon B. for upfront out in the open discussion. That was an interesting topic for noontime mass markets.  Soon after that, I noticed Limbaugh shifting completely to a Rockefeller-Republicans-can-do-no-wrong slant that got boring.

I like even more Hollywood's Michael Medved. How sad it was to hear our one-time friend somewhat supportive of PJB in the Fall of 1999, only to turn on PJB by election time using some uncharacteristic attacks on PJB without sound basis, in support of an anti-Buchanan Republican machine. It was as if Michael was giddy for some unexplained reason and relished those hatchet attacks on the Last Patriot.