Pat Buchanan finished second in the two previous South Carolina Republican presidential primaries.
Without a Republican governor in the Statehouse to lead a cohesive effort by the GOP political establishment against him, the television commentator and columnist-turned presidential candidate figures he can win the Palmetto State primary next February.
"The South Carolina primary is going to produce the next president," Buchanan said at the Rock Hill Holiday Inn on Thursday. "No doubt South Carolina is the key.
"The last time the governor and the political establishment were against us. When we come out of New Hampshire, we will be stronger. We will take South Carolina. South Carolina is the key to the American South. The South is key to the nomination."
Buchanan's Rock Hill stopover was part of a Southern swing that took him through Gastonia, N.C., earlier Thursday morning and ended with stops in Columbia and Greenville later in the day. His schedule takes him to Georgia today.
Buchanan stopped in Gastonia for a press conference to highlight the closing of the John Deere plant to reiterate his opposition to the North American Free Trade Act, NAFTA.
He blamed NAFTA for the plant's imminent relocation to Mexico and loss of middle-class American jobs.
As he stood before about 40 supporters at the Holiday Inn around noon, Buchanan's anti-free trade sword was drawn again.
"I have nothing against the people of Mexico," he said. "We used to have 15 percent of Americans working in manufacturing. Now more and more people are working in government. It's not the kind of America I want."
Buchanan said that since moderate Republicans and Democrats supported NAFTA and GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, it deprived voters of a real choice.
"Both parties agree on all the major issues," Buchanan said. "The American people deserve a choice of destiny."
But Buchanan, long known for his opposition to American military intervention overseas, reserved his strongest criticism for the U.S.-led attacks on Yugoslavia and the Clinton administration's handling of relations with China.
"We don't have any strategic interest in Yugoslavia," Buchanan said. "We need to take a look at all these commitments to go to war where vital American interests are at stake. We need to tell the Europeans that it's time to look out for the civil wars in their own backyards. We need to bring the troops home," he said to applause from his appreciative audience.
"What about looking out for our country first? I am running for president of the United States, not president of the world," Buchanan said.
He said Clinton needs to use American economic, political and diplomatic pressure to get tough with China in order to trim the trade deficit with that country.
"If you don't change, you will have sold your last panda bear at American malls," Buchanan said.
Buchanan didn't speak for long, but clearly his message resonated with those who showed up to hear him. Among them was soccer mom Debbie Mack of Rock Hill, who came to hear Buchanan accompanied by her 6-year old-son, Joseph.
"He's real. He has a conscience," Mack said. "After all the recent tragedies, like Littleton, Colo., Pat is not ashamed to say we need more morals. He has never been ashamed to speak his mind. I believe in him. He has a well-formed conscience. He knows the truth, and he stands by it."
Buchanan is the latest GOP presidential candidate stomping in South Carolina. The state's early primary has prompted earlier visits from GOP rivals U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, former American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole and former Vice President Dan Quayle.
Those candidates are considered more moderate than the fiery Buchanan, who dismissed the notion that he was too conservative to win the GOP nomination or the presidency.
"We nominated two moderate centrists the last two times, and they lost," Buchanan said. "This time, nominate me."
Retiree John Hunter, who drove from York to hear Buchanan, thinks that the candidate's strong convictions are among his biggest assets.
"This man says what he believes. I agree with what he believes," Hunter said as he stood around with his two friends, Conrad Bacon and Grady Culbertson, after the town meeting ended.
Hunter and his friends also like Buchanan's firm anti-abortion position and his attitude about foreign relations.
"I'm for putting America first," Hunter said. "We care about other nations, but we have to put America first."
