I talked to Reagan for about six hours all told. and Reagan was willing to go along with it. He didn't look at his watch, and he didn't allow his campaign aides to cut it off.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Reagan didn't socialize with the press. He spent his evenings with Nancy, watching TV with dinner trays. But he knew that to transcend, you can't condescend.
One of the things I learned in editing 'The Reagan Diaries' is to never say what Reagan would do, because he surprised people.
First, President Reagan was not enthusiastic. But I built up a relationship with him in other areas and then persuaded him that this was important to us and to me, and that we had to at least be in the process of looking at this seriously.
As a reporter having covered him for eight years in the White House, I am sure the press could have done a better job if we had known the real Ronald Reagan.
Several things about Reagan are unusual in a public man. He was not a typical politician at all, but a private man in public life.
I think Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidents, period, not just recently. I thought he had the demeanor. I thought he had the bearing. I thought he had the thought process.
It's time for conservative Americans to do what Reagan did.
News conferences are the only chance the American public has to see Ronald Reagan use his mind.
As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.
I'm not a social friend of the Reagans. That's by their choice and by mine. They don't drink enough.