Buchanan Woos Voters With Fiery Populist Rhetoric

NASHUA, N.H.--Chanting "Go Pat Go," more than a thousand New England citizens gathered Sunday in Nashua at a rally for Republican presidental candidate Patrick J. Buchanan. The conservative commentator focused his remarks on employment and trade and struck a chord with New Hampshire residents still suffering from recent economic downturns.

"I want to help the workers, the men and women whose jobs are being sent out of the country," Buchanan said, appealing to blue-collar workers.

Blaming much of the state's unemployment problems on the trade deficit, Buchanan championed trade restrictions, which he dubbed "fair trade, not free trade."

GATT and NAFTA, Buchanan said, are programs that benefit large "transnational corporations," not the American worker. Workers, he said, have suffered from declines in real wages and medium income.

Buchanan called U.S. participation in free trade programs "surrenders of American soverignty."

Supporters in this traditionally socially conservative state also cheered for Buchanan's stance against abortion.

After Buchanan labeled women who have abortions as murderers, many audience members shouted, "Amen."

Other issues, such as ending gun control and federal involvement in public education, received a similar response.

Buchanan called himself the vanguard leader of "new conservativism" in the Republican Party. His ideas are so cogent, he said, that the other Republican candidates are stealing them to steal the spotlight and voters.

"I sound like an echo chamber sometimes," he said. "Now the rest of them all sound like me."

Buchanan supporters at the rally said they have been taken in by his message. Many said they have been personally affected by problems Buchanan attributes to free trade.

"Everything I buy is made in India or Mexico, and it all falls apart," said Charlie O'Brian, a Manchester resident who agreed that the government should stop permitting a trade deficit to persist. "I read the other day that we import more stuff than we sell to other countries."

Isabel Balfrey, an 85-year-old Andover, Mass., resident, said NAFTA is bad for the United States.

"Clinton is sending all the jobs to Mexico," she said.

A longtime supporter of Buchanan, Balfrey said the former conservative commentator has the best leadership skills of any candidate, Republican or Democrat.

"Pat is honest and very loyal," she said. "You can believe what he says."

Under criticism for not not disavowing former campaign co-chair Larry Pratt, a neo-Nazi supporter. Buchanan avoided speaking on this issue.

But Balfrey said Buchanan's stance on Pratt does not affect her support.

"Pat is going to wait and see [if the allegations are true]," said Balfrey. "He doesn't turn on his friends or his ideas."

"That is why he is the only one who should be President," Balfrey added.

But Laura Sherman, a Clinton supporter who set up outside the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza here to counter the Republican spirit of the event, disagreed.

She said she thinks Buchanan is too conservative to win an election against the Democrat. "I think a lot of Republicans think he is too far [to the] right," Sherman said.

Instead of staying in their party, she predicted the more moderate portion of the Republican Party will vote for Clinton if Buchanan receives the nomination.