This appeared in the Albany (NY) Times-Union on Saturday Aug 3rd
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The United States Taxpayer's Party is holding it's convention later
this month in the same city as the Republicans, with the hopes that
many disenfranchised party faithful will stay in San Diego.  They are
expecting hundreds, but will settle for one: Pat Buchanan.
Howard Phillips is listed as the presidential candidate for the US
Taxpayer's Party, a conservative party formed in 1992.  But he says
he's only a stand-in needed for the ballot petition process
nationwide, and hopes to step aside in favor of Pat Buchanan if the
firebrand conservative commentator bolts from the Republican Party
"We would like to elect a preesident this year and it is our hope that
Patrick J. Buchanan will accept our nomination," Phillips said Friday
at a news conference at the Legislative Office Building.  "We frankly
don't know whether Pat Buchanan will accept our nomination."
The party hopes to be on the ballot in 40 states.
. . . Buchanan said Wednesday that before he would endorse Bob Dole
for President, the Republican Party platform, Dole's running mate, and
the tone of the convention orators would all have to meet with his
approval.
Asked whether he would link up with a third party if his three
conditions are not met, Buchanan said: "I intend to go to the
convention as a Republican and hope to leave as a Republican.  But I'm
more committed to a lot of ideas and issues than to any party label."
Phillips said that if Buchanan were to run, the Taxpayer's Party, as
opposed to H. Ross Perots Reform Party, would be his sole vehicle.
"If he does run in November, as a practical matter . . . his only real
option is the US Taxpayer's Party," Phillips said.  "He knows he has
no shortage of fans in our party."
The US Taxpayer's Party platform embraces the most conservative of
positions, icluding no federal funding for AIDS, education, welfare,
or foreign aid; abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, banning all
abortions, and the end of United States involvement in all
multi-national organizations such as the United Nations and the
International Monetary Fund.
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My comment:  **IF** Buchanan runs third party, he will siphon off
most of the gun owner protest votes that MIGHT have gone to Harry
Browne.  It will dash any hopes the Libertarians have to get more than
the 300,000 or so votes they got last time.
Because of Buchanan's positions on free trade & protectionsism,
libertarians would cut their own throat before they vote for Buchanan,
so the gun-owners vote will be split three ways.
Irish Curse:  "May you live in interesting times"
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
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