Buchanan Tours L.A., Acts the Part of ‘Happy Warrior’ : Politics: Polls show Dole is way ahead in race for GOP presidential nomination. But ex-TV commentator is controlling much of the dialogue.

His entourage consists of his wife and a volunteer driver. He is well behind several other candidates in collecting that lifeblood of politics--money. But as he toured Los Angeles on Tuesday, there was no mistaking the giddiness in Patrick J. Buchanan’s manner, nor his hope that this time he just might seize the Republican presidential nomination that eluded him in 1992.

Just this week, a smattering of national press reports seized on a common metaphor and declared the former television commentator the “happy warrior” of the 1996 campaign. Strange though it may seem for this verbal pugilist, that is exactly how he is acting, issuing his braying laugh when a caller to a Los Angeles radio talk show declares him a “bigot,” wincing only when another calls him a “Nazi.”

There are eight months left before primary votes begin to be cast, but for now Pat Buchanan is hot.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) may be way ahead in almost every poll, but Buchanan is controlling much of the dialogue. The issues that the former television commentator talked about in ‘92--affirmative action, economic nationalism, voter alienation and media assaults on the nation’s culture--have become the moving thrust of the upcoming campaign.

Waiting for his Tuesday morning appearance on KABC-AM’s Michael Jackson Show, Buchanan ticked off recent efforts by other candidates--Dole’s anti-Hollywood barrage, California Gov. Pete Wilson’s assault on affirmative action--and took personal credit.

“Pat Buchanan has won the battle for the hearts and minds of the Republican Party,” he declared in an interview. “This is a Buchanan party now.”

True or not, it is clearly a different party than in 1992, when Buchanan’s bid for the Republican nomination was criticized by many as destructive to incumbent GOP President George Bush.

Buchanan’s first bid began a scant 10 weeks before the New Hampshire primary. He pulled an astounding 37% of the vote there, but his candidacy died within weeks when his wing-and-a-prayer organization was trounced by Bush’s machine. The biggest splash Buchanan made was his full-throated address to the Republican National Convention, where he cast himself as a cultural warrior with rhetoric that many political activists believe turned voters away from the GOP.

This time, campaign-wise, things are different. That much was evident by his presence here Tuesday, nine months before the California primary. Buchanan was to spend several days in California this week, bolstering a campaign treasury that contains about $2 million. He is building organizations in many states, and has had attention-getting victories in some “straw polls” at state conventions.

Buchanan is benefiting not only from his well-honed campaigning, but also from the floundering effort of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), who was seen as Dole’s strongest opponent but who has yet to get his footing nationally.

“I’m better known and further along now than I was,” Buchanan said. “It’s wide open. I’ve got a year to explain not simply why I’m against George Bush, but what we would do if we got the presidency of the United States.”

The campaign may be different, but Buchanan is not. He is still striking the same notes: Anti-abortion. Pro-school prayer. Anti-gay rights. Pro-”economic patriotism” (which his competitors call protectionism). He is against affirmative action, favors a moratorium on legal immigration and a wall at the border to keep out illegal immigrants. He thinks cities like Los Angeles and Washington have become “sinkholes of depravity and uncivilized behavior.”

“There is a tremendous sense of alienation felt and a sense of distance felt by Americans from their national government and from their elites--political elites, cultural elites, academic elites, media elites--these people really don’t represent them,” he said.

There is, he added, “a genuine alarm felt by Americans that they are losing their country, they are losing the country they grew up in.”

If many politicians are simply dismissed by voters, Buchanan is not. People either love or hate him, as his radio turn on Tuesday demonstrated. Several callers praised Buchanan’s economic populism, including one, Kim from Orange County, who lamented sadly that she was “losing my chance at the American Dream.”

Then came Barbara, who declared “respectfully” that Buchanan is a bigot because of his opposition to the gay lifestyle.

“The gay lifestyle is morally wrong and personally ruinous,” Buchanan countered, after laughing at her characterization.

Then came another Barbara, who praised Buchanan’s economic views almost apologetically and added: “I find your other views are reminiscent of the Nazis.”

Buchanan bridled, turning her comment into an attack on contemporary mores. “Are you saying, Miss, that the America of the 1950s was a Nazi country? Because we did teach right from wrong, there was Bible reading in schools, there was voluntary prayer in schools, abortion was outlawed and homosexuality was frowned upon,” he said. “It was a good country.”