Manchester, NH - When it comes to campaign headquarters, Pat Buchanan has been around this block a few times.
In the state where he has finished first and second during his previous presidential bids, Buchanan opened the New Hampshire headquarters for his third campaign yesterday.
About 50 of the conservative Republican's supporters overflowed the small second-floor room above the Merrimack Restaurant - the same spot Buchanan rented during the 1996 campaign and a stone's throw from his 1992 headquarters.
"I remember this place very, very well. The 24-hour-old pizza and all the rest of it," he said, surrounded by a throng of screaming supporters.
Buchanan beat eventual nominee Bob Dole in the 1996 New Hampshire primary and finished a close second to President Bush four years earlier.
This time around, he has plenty of conservative company as he tries to compete with Bush's son, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and Dole's wife, former Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole - the early GOP favorites.
"Now they tell me I gotta beat Bush and Dole," he said. "They don't know what they're in for."
Buchanan said he is confident he will repeat his last performance in the first-in-the-nation primary state and maintain that momentum all the way to the White House.
Surrounded by cheering children clutching balloons and signs, Buchanan repeated his familiar promises to oppose abortion and restore America's shrinking sovereignty. He said voters have come around to his way of thinking.
"There's tough competition out there, but the ideas and causes we've fought for for so long have come to the point where people agree with me," he said.
One person who didn't need convincing was Doug Lambert of Gilford, who said he is supporting Buchanan for the third time because he sees the candidate as a "regular guy."
"I truly believe he is campaigning on the principles that made this country what it is," he said.
