HAVING taking a beating in Carolina on Saturday, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan is heading for a mugging in New York this week, where the media have launched out war on the controversial right wing commentator.
The New York primary on Thursday could be decisive in the scrappy Republican fight for the presidential nomination.
Front runner Bob Dole had the city's 102 delegates almost tied up; but after legal wrangles, two rivals got on the ballot paper to oppose him, publisher Steve Forbes in all districts and Mr Buchanan in two thirds.
Immigrant and Jewish communities in New York in particular perceive Mr Buchanan's anti immigrant nationalist message as dangerous and their concerns have been reflected in New York newspapers. "America - First Pat has a Latin Maid", screamed the headline in the Post.
The Village Voice accused Mr Buchanan of "pressing the buttons of a very nasty group of patriotic citizens' and columnist Mike McAlary described the Washington born Buchanan in the Daily News as the "Ebola virus of Republican politics".
Having won a surprisingly easy victory over Mr Buchanan in Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary, Senator Dole has a real chance of putting his struggling presidential bid back on track in eight primaries tomorrow, with 253 delegates at stake and New York on Thursday.
In a campaign stop at Islip airport in New York state on Saturday, Mr Dole called himself "a mainstream conservative with common sense," and attacked Mr Buchanan without naming him.
The key to Mr Dole's South Carolina victory was the support of local party heavyweights and of 50 per cent of the solid bloc of the Christian right in the Dixie state, which had appeared to be leaning heavily towards Mr Buchanan.
The fiery commentator had made the ending of abortion a central plank of his socially conservative platform and had drawn large crowds of Christian fundamentalists at rallies.
The result shows that Mr Dole, despite a lacklustre campaign with many miscues and sometimes contradictory stands on issues like abort ion, can effectively challenge Mr Buchanan for this hard core Republican constituency, and build a coalition with rank and file Republican voters.
"It looks a lot smoother," said Mr Dole's campaign manager, Scott Reed, as a diminished field of candidates scattered to campaign in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont for tomorrow's "Junior Tuesday".
The 72 year old Kansas senator won 45 per cent of the Republican vote in South Carolina, leaving Mr Buchanan trailing at 29 per cent, with Mr Forbes picking up 13 per cent and former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander 10 per cent.
It was a decisive victory and for the first time Mr Dole leads the delegate count, with 76 committed delegates for the Republican Party's August convention in San Diego, where 996 are needed for victory. Mr Forbes has 60, Mr Buchanan 37 and Mr Alexander 10.
Mr Dole has now had three firsts in the last four primaries and the party establishment is beginning to regain confidence that he can surge to the nomination. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, officially neutral, said that Mr Dole goes into tomorrow's contests "the clear ,and overwhelming front runner.
Mr Buchanan appeared stunned by his failure in South Carolina and told supporters that he "still needs one big breakthrough" in the coming days.
He is hoping for that breakthrough in Georgia, the most important of the states which vote tomorrow. Mr Dole refused to take part in a debate with the other candidates in Atlanta, Georgia. last night.
"We've got to run our campaign, we can't let it he run by television stations and anchor persons around the country."
But Mr Buchanan said of Mr Dole's prospects: "He will crack, and people will see that he is hollow. There is nothing there. He doesn't debate."
Mr Alexander, who had hoped to do well in almost home territory, has now savoured his fourth place in a row and his prospects look bleak. Mr Forbes hopes to do well with his flat tax proposals in New York and vowed to go all the way to San Diego.