President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
Civilized ideas are rooted in the belief in a Supreme Being
Reagan stressed the primacy of the spiritual struggle against Communism. In 1981, Reagan issued this rallying cry: "For the West, for America, the time has come to dare to show to the world that our civilized ideas, our traditions, our values, are not--
like the ideology and war machine of totalitarian societies-- just a facade of strength. It is time for the world to know our intellectual and spiritual values are rooted in the source of all strength, a belief in a Supreme Being, and a law higher than
our own."
Similarly, in his "Evil Empire" speech in 1983, Reagan declared, "The source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those
who would enslave their fellow man." When human freedom and dignity were under assault during the Cold War, Reagan knew that the spiritual nature of man and the freedom to know God where central to defining humanity and decisive in defeating tyranny.
Common sense conservatism is antithesis to fanaticism
The first step to transcending great challenges is to rid ourselves of ideology. As was his wont, Ronald Reagan hit the nail on the head: Conservatism is the antithesis of the kind of ideological fanaticism that has brought so much horror and destruction
to the world. The common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women, working out their own lives in their own way-this is the heart of American conservatism today. Conservative wisdom and principles are derived from a willingness to learn
--not just from what is going on now, but from what has happened before. Ideologues fit the world to their minds; conservatives fit their minds to the world. Ideologues believe politics is only a part of life.
Ideologues believe they possess an abstract, absolute truth that can compel an imperfect humanity to attain a terrestrial paradise; conservatives believe in self-- evident truths and traditional rights and duties.
Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction
Preparing for my 2008 debate, I came across a quote from Ronald Reagan that perfectly expresses our need to preserve and protect American values:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in
the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free."
Source: America by Heart, by Sarah Palin, p. xx
, Nov 23, 2010
1980s: Soviet leaders openly repudiate religion
Reagan's famous "evil empire" speech was devoted mostly to exploring faith. The way the USA and USSR treated faith, he said, had direct consequences for how they treated their people. Where there was God, there was freedom. Where He was not recognized,
there was tyranny:
"Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution. Lenin, their guiding spirit, said in 1920 that they repudiate all morality tha
proceeds from supernatural ideas--that's their name for religion--or ideas that are outside class conceptions...They must be made to understand we will never abandon our belief in God. Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in
totalitarian darkness--pray they will discover the joy of knowing God."
What drove his critics crazy wasn't that Reagan pointed out the godlessness of the Soviet system, but that he pointed out the presence of God in ours.
1980: Victory in New Hampshire primary sealed nomination
Dad announced his candidacy for the 1980 presidential election. He was a long shot against Ronald Reagan, but he ran a strong campaign in Iowa and won an upset victory in the caucus. Unfortunately, his hot streak ran out amid the cold winters of
New Hampshire. Reagan defeated him there and continued on to the Republican nomination.
There was a lot of speculation about whom Reagan would choose for vice president. At the convention in
Detroit, he was in discussion with Gerald Ford about some sort of co-presidency. They agreed it wouldn't work--a good decision. Then Reagan called Dad and asked him to be his running mate--an even better decision.
On election night, the Reagan-Bush ticket crushed Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale 489-49 in the Electoral College.
1984: I won't exploit my opponent's youth & inexperience
It's more important [than debating policy details] to be ready to flip a an attack onto favorable territory. Reagan did this effectively in his reelection campaign in 1984 after stumbling in his first debate. Facing questions about his age (he was then
73 and running against the 56-year-old Walter Mondale), Reagan shot back by saying, "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
Source: Courage and Consequence, by Karl Rove, p.185
, Mar 9, 2010
1980: Won Texas by 14 points via local community organizing
In summer 1980, my role was to carry Texas for Ronald Reagan and my former boss, George H. W. Bush. We built a robust, statewide, grassroots organization in every country. Every conceivable voter group had its own state and local leadership, from farmers
and ranchers to Hispanics to women to students to small business owners to doctors. [They ran] elaborate voter identification and get-out-the-vote operations. We put special efforts into precincts where past election returns provided evidence of lots of
swing voters and even focused on Democratic primary voters in precincts where conservative Democrats ran well.
It was a huge success. We raised $3.1 million--more than all the Victory Committee in America combined. The Reagan national campaign supporte
our efforts with a modest TV buy and a more-than-adequate number of appearances by Reagan and his home state vice presidential running mate, George H. W. Bush. In Texas, Reagan-Bush walloped Carter-Mondale by nearly 14 points.
Texas 1980: walloped Carter-Mondale by nearly 14 points
In summer 1980, [I had] a role to carry Texas for Reagan and Bush. We built a robust, statewide, grassroots organization in every county. Every conceivable voter group had its own state and local leadership, from farmers and ranchers to Hispanics to wome
to students to small business owners to doctors to African-Americans.
The county committees and coalition groups were then drawn into an elaborate voter identification and get-out-the-vote operation from more than a hundred phone centers and many more
local headquarters. We put special efforts into precincts where past election returns provided evidence of lots of swing voters and even focused on Democratic primary voters in precincts where conservative Democrats ran well.
It was a huge success.
We raised $3.1 million. The Reagan national campaign supported our efforts with a modest TV buy and a more-than-adequate number of appearances by Reagan & Bush. In Texas, Reagan-Bush walloped Carter-Mondale by nearly 14 points.
Freedom is always just one generation away from extinction
In the VP debate, I closed with a quote from Reagan, who once said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction: "We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it and then hand it to them so
that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America back in the day when men and women were free." That's what I wanted Americans to remember.
Source: Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin, p.297
, Nov 17, 2009
Pick your core agenda issues and focus on those
In 2006, it was a humbling experience to step in to lead an administration that would serve a state of this size and diversity. But I knew we could face the challenge with anticipation and without a sense of overload if we observed Ronald
Reagan's principles" pick your core agenda issues and focus on those; empower and motivate your departments and staff to implement your vision in other areas. Reagan concentrated on a few key issues and knocked them out of the park.
That gave him the political capital to effect change in many other policy areas. I knew if I kept my campaign promise of overhauling the state in the areas of resource development, fiscal restraint, and ethical government,
I would also be able to turn special needs and the elderly, job training, unemployment, and social ills in rural Alaska.
OpEd: Reagan in 1980 was a movement, not just a candidate
Pres. Carter continues to believe that I weakened him for the general election and caused him to lose the presidency to Ronald Reagan. In fact, he makes a point of saying so frequently, especially when he speaks in Boston. But I'm not really sure he
needed any help from me. Carter's approval rating was lower than Richard Nixon's after Watergate. The nation was suffering through an energy crisis and double-digit inflation. The American people were looking for new leadership. And Ronald
Reagan was capturing the imagination of the American people with his sunny optimism.
What would have happened had I gained the nomination? Frankly, I don't know that I could have beaten Ronald Reagan. He was more than a candidate at that time; he was
a movement.
After the election, I phoned President Carter on December 15, as his administration was nearing its end. He asked me if I was looking forward to the new administration. I answered, "Not one day sooner than they take office."
"Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment. ... You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for
our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness" --President Ronald Reagan
Source: Saving Freedom, by Jim DeMint, p. 12
, Jul 4, 2009
Private values must be at the heart of public policies
"Private values," said President Reagan in his 1986 state-of-the-union message, "must be at the heart of public policies." Americans have always valued faith, character, hard work, personal responsibility, self-reliance, discipline, competition, charity,
fairness, and achievement. Values originate from what people believe, especially what they believe about God.
Reagan won the hearts and votes of the American people by shifting the debate from a myriad of confusing political issues to values
Americans recognized immediately as their own. By reminding Americans of our goodness and strengths, Reagan held up a mirror and helped us see ourselves at our very best. Reagan made us believe we could get across any river on our own. Reagan convinced
Americans that freedom would work for everyone and that the big-government welfare state was just a fox clothed in deceptive political promises.
Unfortunately the cause of freedom has had too few articulate champions since Ronald Reagan.
Replace left-right with up (freedom)& down (totalitarianism)
Americans who have become increasingly dependent on the federal government must now make a difficult choice. Reagan said we must decide "whether we believe in our capacity for self-government of whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that
a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest there is no such thing as a
left or right. There is only an up or down--up to man's dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ash heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would
trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."
Reagan knew every generation of Americans must make a choice between freedom and socialism. Today that choice confronts Americans more urgently than ever before.
From the start of his political life, Reagan was stage-managed by Nancy. "Did I ever give Ronnie advice? You bet I did," Nancy Reagan wrote in "My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan." "I'm the one who knows him best, and
I was the only person in the White House who had absolutely no agenda of her own--except helping him."
"Mrs. Reagan was a precise and demanding woman," recalls the Reagan aide over administration of the White
House. "Her sole interest was the advancement of her husband's agenda." It turned out that most of Nancy's advice was sound. As she explained it, "As much as I love Ronnie, I'll admit he does have at least one fault:
He can be naive about the people around him. Ronnie only tends to think well of people. While that's a fine quality in a friend, it can get you into trouble in politics."
OpEd: Transformational president on non-government solutions
Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson transformed the national mood, then the direction of national policy. They did not do so by being "post-partisan," or centrist, but by taking huge political risks on behalf of principles that the
people came to deeply respect.
To the list of transformative presidents we must add one conservative, Ronald Reagan. After the depressing years of the 1970s, people were ready for "morning in America." Reagan had the gift of leadership, and behind
Reagan were armies of strategists able to turn a personal triumph into a systematic ideological reversal. Reagan succeeded in transforming public assumptions from the general premise that government should help to the idea that government was likely to
make matters worse. Thanks to very effective Republican campaign machinery, ideological zeal, and party unity, that presumption held for another two decades--until it was ultimately discredited by events.
1950s: 375 speeches as GE employee education on free markets
I recommend "The Education of Ronald Reagan" as a study of the impact eight years at General Electric had on Ronald Reagan. While working with Lemuel Boulware, GE's vice president and labor strategist, Reagan delivered 375 speeches to GE employees. This
was part of the most elaborate employee education program about free enterprise, markets, and productivity in that generation.
Boulware gave Reagan books by great free-market thinkers like Hayek & Friedman. Reagan spent hours reading them on the train,
which is how he travelled in those days, and this prepared him to talk to blue collar workers about the American system.
Boulware believed every issue had an "M"--the point where the majority opinion on that topic was found. If you could "move the M,"
you moved the entire framework of the debate. Reagan did not argue within the framework of the leftwing elites. He "moved the M," changing the fundamental framework of the debate and requiring people to think about issues in a completely new way.
Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."
I read the Bible. I travel with one, in fact, and there's never a time that I don't have a page or a passage bookmarked or flagged for my
ready reference. Why? Because the Bible always has something new to teach me, some new way to look at the world. It's accessible, and at the same time it's beyond knowing, and I can't for the life of me figure how anyone gets along without it.
Source: Stand For Something, by John Kasich, p.151
, May 10, 2006
1980: Insisted John Anderson be in presidential debate
In 1980, Reagan won in a landslide. Carter had recently refused to debate with third-party candidate John Anderson, whom Reagan has insisted be included. (And don't think it was a matter of principle, on either side; having handled presidential debate
negotiations myself, I can tell you that it's all about partisan calculations--in this case, that Anderson was taking votes from Carter.) As a result, there was only one debate between the major-party nominees that year, & it was late in the campaign.
Until that point--people forget this today--the race was neck-and-neck. In one of the debates of the 1980 campaign, Reagan wasn't brilliant. But he was fine. He didn't fumble lines. But his most brilliant move was the way he dealt with
Carter's attempt to attack him as a dangerous ideologue. When Carter suggested that Reagan had tried to discontinue Medicare, Reagan looked directly at the president, and laughed, "There you go again..." That was it. Carter looked like a fool.
Most concerned for special interest group, "We the People"
[Reagan's 1981 Inaugural Speech]: We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries, or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political
party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, and truck drivers. They are, in
short, "We the People." This breed called Americans. The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to
believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems that now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.
Not first religious president but first hero to evangelicals
Jimmy Carter claimed to be born-again and even taught Sunday School during his White House years, yet he seemed to erect a wall of separation between faith and practice when it came to being president. Ronald Reagan claimed a vital Christian faith and
sense of mission, though he rarely went to church and his wife's dabbling in astrology made skeptics of many.
[The evangelical community] wanted their president to be a godly man. Jimmy Carter had talked about being born again but had disappointed
most evangelicals. Though Carter at least made faith in office fashionable, Ronald Reagan was their true hero. He talked about divine destiny, the rights of the unborn, and the influence of the Bible on his life. But despite his eight years in office, th
Reagan administration had not made much progress on the issues religious conservatives cared about. They wanted a man who would use the presidency as a bully pulpit, face down the liberals, and make the country safe for faith once again.
1980 Reagan Revolution included defeat of liberal Senators
The election of Ronald Reagan and the defeat of a clutch of very liberal Democratic senators in 1980 seemed to many of us a decisive turn for the better in our culture. The "Reagan Revolution" was to be a sharp break with liberal trends.
Liberals thought otherwise. If their response to the 1980 elections is any guide, in reaction to future conservative victories at the polls, modern liberals will only become more intolerant, untruthful, venomous, and abusive.
The cultural phase of the revolution petered out; Reagan lost the Senate in 1986 and was followed by Bush and Clinton. Today, more is wrong with our culture than was the case in 1980.
If the conservative political revival persists and gathers strength, we may see a long period of an antagonistic standoff between the political nation and its culture, on the one hand, and the culture of the elites, on the other.
Tony Blair was trying to devise alternatives to traditional liberal rhetoric, in the hope of finding ways to advance economic growth, individual empowerment and social justice. Tony Blair & Bill Clinton clearly shared a political vision. But the question
confronting each of them was how to invigorate a progressive movement that had lost steam through much of the 1970s and 1980s, giving rise to Reaganism in the US and Thatcherism in Britain.
The Republican Party in the US had been masterful at creating
a groundswell for conservative ideas after Senator Barry Goldwater's resounding defeat by Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 Presidential election. Shocked by the margin of their party's losses, several Republican multimillionaires embarked on a strategy to seed
conservative, even right-wing political philosophy, and to develop and advance specific policies to further it. They funded think tanks, endowed professorships and seminars and developed media channels for communicating ideas and opinions.
Built morale so people believed things could be accomplished
Institutions with high esprit de corps, and high morale, can be enormously productive; but if the leader is not careful, there are pitfalls. Morale is not an end in itself; it is designed to create better performance. It cannot be an after-thought--it ha
to be central to everything you do as a leader.
When Carter was president, the prevailing mood was malaise. Nobody could run the country, you just did the best you could not to make it worse. When Reagan became president, all of a sudden people started
to believe things could be accomplished. The Soviet Union could be stared down and spoken about in plain language, unions could be forced to behave responsibly, taxes could be reduced in the hope that individuals would make smarter decisions for their
dollars than the federal government. The feeling was that the president was very much in charge. Reagan understood that much of that was optimism. It did not mean that leaders ran around cheerful all the time, but that they found ways to build morale.
Reagan was, it was said, Teflon-coated. Nothing stuck to him: not revelations of wrongdoing by aides, not occasional failures in foreign policy, not evidence that astrology may have influenced some of his decisions. Approaching his 78th birthday as his
presidency drew to a close, Reagan was seen by many as the personification of Uncle Sam or as the grandfather of the nation. A scholar had called the presidency an “awesome burden,” but Reagan neared the end of his 2nd term as a remarkably untroubled man
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
, Dec 25, 2000
Child of alcoholic father, but mother was open about it
Reagan was also an adult child of an alcoholic (ACOA). Reagan wrote about his father, "He was a man who might have made a brilliant career out of selling, but he lived in a time--and with a weakness [alcoholism]--that made him a frustrated man." Reagan's
presidential biographer provided information that might help explain why Reagan's character flaws were not as pronounced as Clinton's are. Reagan's mother was said to have taken "great care that her children realized that their father's alcoholism was a
disease, for which they should not resent him."
It is important to stress that a significant difference exists between Reagan & Clinton. Reagan did not repeatedly demonstrate the effects of his background as an ACOA. Clinton, on the other hand, did.
One can draw an interesting parallel between Reagan and Clinton. Reagan's mother dealt directly with his father's alcoholism. In the case of Clinton, denial of the problem and of anything unpleasant was the means by which the alcoholism was avoided.
Kept perfect White House diary, but revealed little of self
Reagan is a man of benign remoteness and no psychological curiosity, either about himself or others. He considers his life to have been unremarkable. He gives nothing of himself to intimates, believing that he has no self to give. In the White House, he
wrote hundreds of personal letters & obediently kept an 8-year diary, but the handwritten sentences, while graceful, are about as revelatory of the man behind them as the calligraphy of a copyist.
One might compare my task to that of a film editor
who has to integrate a few hundred close-focus frames with 20,000 feet of gauzy long shots. But biography is sometimes freer than film to rise to such challenges.
Any quest for the real Dutch is bound to be an exercise in frustration. Hence the
dullness of many of the books that have been written about him, their inability to capture his magic. Since Reagan has primarily been a phenomenon of the American imagination, he can only be re-created by an extension of biographical technique.
Author Morris is character “Dutch” in Reagan’s bio
The New York Times managed to glimpse enough of the text to print the following, headlined Writer as Character in Reagan Biography:
“Dutch is days away from publication. but in the meantime, its publisher, Random House, is guarding copies
zealously, party for fear of a controversy about Mr. Morris’s writing style, which employs an unconventional technique that disturbs historians and former Reagan officials who have heard about it.
Simply put,
Mr. Morris has invented a character: himself. For literary purposes, the author, 59, has essentially transformed his own life. revised his age, birthplace, identity and resume to become a Zeligesque narrator who is a Reagan contemporary.“
NY Times review, ”Is Dutch flawed by Mr. Morris’s technique? To judge from the book’s extensive notes, it in no way distorts the record of Mr. Reagan’s life, only the viewpoint from which it is told.“
Four years later Reagan returned to the White House, at the reluctant invitation of President Bush, to receive the Medal of Freedom before Clinton took office.
Dutch,
81 years old, stepped to the podium to give a short speech of thanks. “God bless, the United States of America.” He said it so reverently that I wondered if love for country was not
Reagan’s one and only passion.
Afterward, in the receiving line, he took my hand and nodded with patent lack of recognition. Yet the following afternoon, his retirement chief of staff called to say that
Reagan had remarked, “I saw Edmund in the reception line. I think he is waiting for me to die before he publishes his book.”
Even in his dotage, he had seen something in my gaze that I did not want to acknowledge.
Cared more about policies than being “Great Communicator”
It was policies that mattered to Reagan. He was not over-impressed by his reputation as the “Great Communicator,” which he realized was often used to suggest that Americans liked the way he said things but disagreed with
what he was saying. Reagan knew better. “I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content,” Reagan said in his farewell address. “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things,
and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation-from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.
They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I’ll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscover of our values and our common sense.“
I won a nickname, "The Great Communicator." But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things,
and they didn't spring full blown from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation--from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan Revolution.
Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery; a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.
Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, people would produce less of it.
Common sense told us that to preserve the peace, we'd have to become strong again.
The lesson of all this was: As long as we always remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours.
The Shining City is freer, and is left in good hands
My fellow Americans, this is the 34th time I’ll speak to you from the Oval Office, and the last. We have been together 8 years now, and soon it will be time for me to go.
I’ve spoken of the Shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if
I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it.
My friends, we did it. we made the City freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all not bad, not bad at all. And so, goodbye. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.“
Source: Dutch, by Edmund Morris, p.649
, Jan 11, 1988
What you see is what you get with Reagan, and nothing more
For seven months I had been interviewing him, following him halfway around the world, lunching with his wife, sitting in on senior meetings. Dutch remained a mystery to me, and worse still, dare
I entertain such heresy, an apparent airhead.
“What you see is what you get,” several of his intimates had warned me, when I asked about his hidden depths. Nevertheless,
I could not believe how little one got and how shallow those depths appeared to be. At 75, he was taciturn much of the time, conducting meetings with only the barest of introductory remarks, which he would read from typed cards.
When he was asked direct questions, he would refer again to his cards, and if there was nothing there to help him, he would smile, shrug, and let Shultz or Regan answer.
Re-election: Morning in America; ship of state realigned
Reagan presented himself in [re-election] campaign commercials, as a sort of sun, glowing with good news and good intentions, banishing memories of the recession. In the cloying slogan of his video scriptwriters, it was “Morning Again in America.” One
could use phrases like “love of country” and “right to life” without embarrassment any more.
Poor decent, dull Walter Mondale realized Reagan [was unbeatable] when he debated him, and was famously rolled for trying to raise the age issue. “I am not
going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,“ Reagan promised. Even Mondale had to laugh.
Americans favored Reagan because for four years he’d kept, or fought to keep, all his campaign promises. He had cut taxes,
harnessed government, revived the economy, freed the entrepreneur, and cursed the ungodly. The ship of state was realigned, empowered, larger, prouder-and for those reasons less considerate of people who sailed steerage, or of powers that got in its way.
Political spectrum: up is freedom; down is statism
On the night of the Fourth of July, we thought of Reagan’s ingenious suggestion that the old political dynamic of Left v. Right should be refigured:
Isn’t our choice really one of up or down?
Down through statism, the welfare state, more and more government largesse, accompanied always by more government authority, less individual liberty and ultimately totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own good.
The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society.
We don’t celebrate Dependence Day on the Fourth of July. We celebrate Independence Day.
Survives getting shot; an “excellent physical specimen”
Reagan left the Washington Hilton at 2:25 PM on March 30, The usual motorcade awaited in the hotel’s curveway, not more than 13 feet ahead, engines humming. Suddenly, six bullets fired in less than two seconds hit four people. Jerry Parr, White House
security chief, shoved Reagan into the open door of the limousine as the bullets zinged around the metal and bulletproof glass.
They reached George Washington University Hospital in three-and-a-half minutes. Reagan made himself get out and walk toward
the emergency-room door. Just inside, out of public sight, his knees buckled.
[He was wheeled into surgery] with his wit intact: “Honey, I forgot to duck,” “Who’s minding the store?” and-to the solemn company costumed in surgical greens-“Please tell me
you’re Republicans.”
The President’s chest was closed at 5:24 PM. He had “sailed through” surgery, the hospital announced, and was an “excellent physical specimen.” On April 11, the President was well enough to walk out of the hospital.
