Buchanan bows out.

Buchanan Bows Out

FOR A WHILE there, all Washington, and perhaps afew other parts of the country besides, was buzzing with the hot political story of the month: Patrick Buchanan's run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination.

Buchanan, of course, is a familiar figure in theseparts. (His last contribution to NR was in our special November 1984 issue, "A Program for Reagan's Second Term.') Richard Nixon spotted the young Buchanan's fiery editorials in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat a quarter-century ago, and he has given many a doughty stroke since. He came out of Watergate clean as a hound's tooth and set up shop as a political pundit. Two years ago, he gave up that lucrative career to labor as Ronald Reagan's communications director. For a few weeks, he wanted Reagan's job.

A Buchanan campaign would have raised both thetemperature and the intellectual level of the debate. It faced enormous difficulties, however, both practical and conceptual. Whatever Buchanan's original intention, he would have been forced to bash fellow conservatives. He also faced the same disabling objection as the other Pat, the Reverend Pat Robertson: The list of presidential candidates who have never held elective office is exceedingly short, and consists mostly of generals. The Presidency is not an entry-level position.

There remains the fact that such an inherently problematiccandidacy should have been taken as seriously as it was. Probably it was just ennui; but the episode also flushed out a feeling, most pungently expressed by Buchanan's sister and would-be campaign manager, that the presumptive conservative challenger, Jack Kemp, has not caught fire. With 11 months still until the Iowa caucuses, such talk is decidedly premature: To catch fire now may be to burn out. A lot can happen between now and voting day; and--Kempites take heed--a lot will have to.