Buchanan advocates kicking U.N. out of U.S. in Bob Jones speech
GREENVILLE, South Carolina (AP) -- Restarting his campaign, Reform Party contender Pat Buchanan told a Bob Jones University crowd Monday that the United States is being drawn into a one-world government and should kick the United Nations headquarters out of the country.
"We want the United Nations out of the United States by year's end," Buchanan said to hearty applause.
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Bob Jones University is the venue for a speech by the Reform Party presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan
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"If you have trouble leaving, we'll send up 10,000 Marines to help you pack."
Buchanan visited the campus determined not to lecture a school known for fundamentalist religious views, anti-Catholic rhetoric and an interracial dating ban that was in effect until this year.
He found a receptive audience for his accusation that Hollywood and film producers are a source of moral decay in the nation.
"Instead of breaking up Microsoft, why don't we break up Disney?" he asked. He also said he wants to shut the National Endowment for the Arts.
His stop at the school brought visibility to a lagging presidential effort, but one that received a $12.6 million infusion in federal campaign money last week when the Federal Election Commission decided he should get money earmarked for the Reform Party.
Buchanan, barely drawing 1 percent in national polls, was sidelined by gall bladder surgeries. But he plans more appearances this week and an advertising campaign closer to the election Nov. 7.
University President Bob Jones III told the crowd of 2,000 students and Buchanan supporters that the Reform contender "cares more for truth than for his own image." But he said later he was not endorsing Buchanan for the presidency.
"I endorse so much of what he says," Jones said. "I endorse his courage."
Buchanan, a Catholic, said he wants to "stand with my friends" and talk about the social and moral and cultural issues that have been absent from the presidential race.
"These folks were very good to me and friendly to me in two campaigns and I think they've been beat up and piled on unfairly and unjustly by the national media," Buchanan said before his speech.
Buchanan defended the university, which was at the center of GOP wrangling earlier this year when Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush drew fire for not criticizing some of the school's policies during his appearance there in February.
"Why should we run away from our friends simply because you're under attack from the national media who by and large are not friends of the things I believe in?" Buchanan asked.
Democrats said they relished Buchanan's Bob Jones visit because the former Republican presidential hopeful is returning to a place that meant trouble for Bush six months ago.
"Apparently, Buchanan didn't learn from Junior's mistake," South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian said, meaning Bush.
Jones said: "We make no apology for being outside of the mainstream."
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