Buchanan Wins

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE: It may have taken the New Hampshire primary to make Bill Clinton look truly presidential. By early evening, Pat Buchanan had broken free of a tenuous three-way tie with Bob Dole and Lamar Alexander to become, swiftly and uinexpectedly, the bellwether Republican candidate in 1996. Clinton, who made sure to put in a weekend appearance in the state, won a handsome 90 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Both Dole and Forbes suffered commensurately, and Lamar Alexander, the third-place finisher, found more ears for his argument of electability. "There's been a backlash against negative advertising and he capitalized on it," says TIME Managing Editor Walter Isaacson. "He seems to be the decent candidate, although people will still have a lot of doubt about him." Said Alexander after the tallies came in: "The Republican Party will never unify behind Pat."