A famously outspoken conservative, Pat Buchanan was a speechwriter and political advisor to President Richard Nixon and later served as communications director for president Ronald Reagan. In 1982 Buchanan began a long association with the Cable News Network as a political commentator. He took leaves of absence from that job to work for Reagan and to run for president himself in the elections of 1992, 1996, and 2000. Buchanan won the New Hampshire Republican primary in 1996 before losing the overall GOP nomination to Bob Dole. In 2000 he broke from the Republican party to run as the nominee from the Reform Party. Since then he has continued as an on-air commentator and syndicated columnist. In spite of Buchanan's conservative pedigree, he has been fierce critic of many of the policies of President George W. Bush.
