An America First isolationist who seeks to eliminate all foreign aid by the end of the century he was perceived as

An “America First” isolationist who seeks to eliminate all foreign aid by the end of the century, he was perceived as a borderline psychotic when he ran against George Bush in 1992, but today it is his populism that is setting the mainstream tone. Opposed to abortion under any circumstances, he takes an Old Testament view of relations between the sexes Mr Buchanan’s wife, Shelley, is properly meek. At a political barbecue on 4 July Mr Buchanan, whose boyhood hero was Franco, sought to impress a gathering of Republican funders by contrasting his medieval marriage habits with those of the Clintons. Introducing Shelley to the crowd, he declared: “She’s been working on your national health care plan all week, folks!” Shelley was not amused but Pat cackled with laughter.Mr Buchanan is running neck and neck for second spot with Mr Gramm, a man described recently by one columnist as “a sourpuss college professor with a yahoo drawl and the mean squint of a bill collector”. Mr Gramm himself would not entirely disagree with the portrait.

“I’ve never been able to get anywhere on my good looks and charm,” he has said. His strength lies in his capacity to bully people into giving him campaign money ($12m [pounds 8m] to date, compared to Mr Buchanan’s $2m) and his much-touted, PhD- grasp of free market economics. One of his arguments for cutting social welfare to the bone is that the United States is “the only nation in the world where poor people are fat”.But Mr Gramm might have terminally severed his connection with the Republicans’ powerful Christian constituency following the revelation two months ago that he had once invested a modest sum in a soft-porn film that was never made. Mr Wilson, clean-cut and unspectacular, is the one contender who has had the courage to declare that he is pro-choice on abortion.

But he has sought vigorously, and with some success, to counter the perception that he might be a closet liberal by taking combative stands against “affirmative action” and immigration. Without a hint of shame, he formally announced his candidacy last week against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, the first sight to greet so many millions of arriving American immigrants down the years. A calculating – if mind-numbingly unprepossessing – opportunist, he is feared by the Clinton camp because he is backed by California money and does not look as if he has stepped off the set of a Dracula movie.Mr Wilson is dull, but Mr Alexander is duller. Were it not for the fact that “Lamar”, as he likes to be known, has managed to milk $7.6m in campaign money by persuading the Southern rich that he resents the Washington elite as much as they do, he would be remembered by historians only for announcing his candidacy wearing an open-necked, checked shirt – quite possibly the most flamboyant thing he has ever done. Mr Dole is leading the pack, by $1m dollars in election funds and by around 30 points in the polls. His meat is not quite as red as Mr Buchanan’s, but it is more digestible. He is – or proclaims he is – anti-abortion, anti-sex (in the movies and generally), anti-gun control laws and anti-gay.