FOUR years ago Mr Pat Buchanan's opponents in the Republican presidential race delighted in pointing out that the America first candidate was driving a BMW. He quickly traded in his German made car for a Cadillac.
This time around, his main rival for the Republican nomination, Senator Bob Dole, hailed BMW production in the US as an example of how wrong the fiery protectionist can be in urging America to tear up its international trade commitments.
As trade becomes the central economic issue of the campaign, Mr Dole visited a gleaming BMW plant in Greer, South Carolina, where a crucial Republican primary takes place tomorrow, and stressed how much the Deep South's economy depends on global trade and foreign investment.
Greer, in Spartanburg County, is a sleepy town of two story brick buildings, mobile homes and Christian bookstores where traditional luncheonettes like Louise's Restaurant have copies of the "Bible and photographs of Elvis".
Today it co exists with the new South in the shape of the immaculate, white 1.2 million sq ft BMW plant, and Gerhard's Cafe, owned by Gerhard Groemmer of Austria, which is packed every evening with Germans and former textile workers.
Over 100 foreign owned companies, including BMW, Michelin, Hitachi and Fuji, have brought 110,000 good paying new jobs to South Carolina in recent years, helping to reduce the unemployment rate to 5 per cent. BMW announced a $200 million expansion on Tuesday.
"This is one very powerful example of what happens when you can trade, you can sell you can make a good product," Mr Dole told reporters.
But Mr Buchanan has also found a foothold in Spartanburg County for his opposition to world trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT which many blame for the loss of the textile jobs on, which the Dixie state once thrived.
He is backed a powerful magnate, Mr Roger Milliken, head of South Carolina's largest textile firm, who says the US clothing business is unfairly handicapped by the import of cheap fabrics from Asia.
The state's former governor, Mr Carroll Campbell, for whom free trade is a gospel, has a reputation for delivering South Carolina to his favoured nominee and he is backing the establishment candidate. "I promise you Bob Dole is going to win South Carolina" he said.
The 72 year old Senate Majority Leader looks set to fulfil this prediction and gain vital momentum as nine more states prepare to vote on Tuesday, with New York, Florida and Texas hard on their heels.
Mr Dole came ahead in two telephone polls published yesterday in the Spartanburg Herald Journal. Mason Dixon gave him 35 per cent with Mr Buchanan at 24 per cent and Market Search Corporation had Mr Dole leading the conservative challenger by 36 to 21 per cent.
Both polls showed Mr Lamar Alexander and Mr Steve Forbes trailing with around 10 per cent.
Mr Forbes, the flat tax proponent who jumped back into contention by winning Tuesday's Arizona primary, has gathered 57 convention delegates out of 996 necessary for nomination. Mr Buchanan has 31, Mr Dole 27 and Mr Alexander five.
The wealthy publisher is not campaigning in South Carolina but his resurgence has made next Thursday's primary in New York where 93 delegates are at stake, a make or break contest for the Kansas senator.
"This is a fluid campaign and we are going to be in it to the bitter end," said Mr Forbes, who is Mr Dole's sole challenger in most New York districts because of the city's archaic primary regulations.
Mr Buchanan's first stop in South Carolina was at an abandoned textile factory at the town of Clearwater, which he selected to highlight his America first theme. "There are losers in the go go global economy, friends," he said. "We are going to put a spotlight on the people who have been left out."
The same factory was once used by Democratic Senate Minority leader Dick Gephardt as a backdrop to illustrate the failure of Republican economic policies.
His campaign "is still on fire", proclaimed the former commentator, who faltered in Arizona where he received 27 per cent compared to 30 for Mr Dole and 34 for Mr Forbes. The ABC, CNN and CBS networks apologised yesterday for wrongly, declaring Mr Dole to have finished third, based on exit polls.
Mr Buchanan made a pitch for the Christian right in South Carolina when he addressed 1,000 fervent fans at the Spartanburg Evangelical Cathedral.
"I will nominate justices who will overthrow that abomination called Roe v Wade, he cried as the audience in the cinema like auditorium rose with a roar of approval.
However, the National Right to Life organisation yesterday placed full page advertisements in the local press endorsing both Mr Buchanan and Mr Dole as antiabortion candidates and urging voters to oppose Mr Alexander and Mr Forbes.