From staff reports

GOP presidential contender Pat Buchanan’s increasingly likely decision to become a Reform Party presidential candidate is confusing at best.

Tuesday, September 14, 1999

GOP presidential contender Pat Buchanan’s increasingly likely decision to become a Reform Party presidential candidate is confusing at best.

Buchanan says he’s almost ready to abandon his Republican Party, which he calls a Democratic Party clone. Instead, he would run as a Reform Party candidate, applying his social conservatism to the party founded by Ross Perot and currently led by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.

The problem with all of this is, the Reform Party is currently economically conservative, not socially so by any stretch of the imagination.

Gov. Ventura indirectly referred to Buchanan as ”a retread from another campaign or another party&uot; who is inappropriate for the Reform Party.

And, at best, Buchanan’s probable decision would hinder other Republicans’ chances of winning, therebye helping to elect Al Gore or another Democrat.

So what’s he up to?

Maybe it is all simply an attempt to get some attention within the Republican Party, which seems to be happening.

Maybe he’s just tired of his approach to government remaining in the minority, extreme within his own party, and often ignored; mainstream Republicans hope this is all it is, and are pouring on the attention.

Still, if Buchanan does run as a Reformer, one thing seems certain. His views and stands, if accepted in the party, would fundamentally change the Reform Party, causing it to lose its gains of recent years.