Patrick J. Buchanan

Pat Buchanan has been a senior adviser to three presidents, twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.

From 1966 through 1974, Buchanan was a confidant and assistant to Richard Nixon, and from 1985 to 1987, director of communications in Ronald Reagan's White House. Buchanan challenged George Bush for the Republican nomination in 1992 and almost upset the president in the New Hampshire primary. In 1996, he won the New Hampshire primary and finished second to Senator Dole with 3 million Republican votes.

Buchanan was born in Washington, educated at Catholic and Jesuit schools, and received his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1962. At 23, he became the youngest editorial writer on a major newspaper in America, The St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In 1966, Buchanan became the first full-time staff member in the legendary comeback of Richard Nixon. He traveled with the future president in the campaigns of 1966 and 1968, and served as special assistant to the president through the final days of Watergate.

On leaving the White House, Buchanan became a columnist and founding father of three of the most enduring, if not endearing, talk shows in TV history: "The McLaughlin Group," and CNN's "Capital Gang" and "Crossfire."

In his White House years, Buchanan wrote foreign policy speeches and attended four summits, including Nixon's opening to China in 1972 and Reagan's Reykjavik summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

Buchanan has written six books, including the New York Times best-seller, A Republic Not an Empire and a Washington Post best-seller about growing up in the nation's capital, Right From the Beginning. His newest book, Death of the West will be out in January.

He is married to the former Shelley Ann Scarney, a member of the White House staff from 1969 to 1975.