The Presidency: A Conversation with Ronald Reagan

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But when he goes to Camp David, Reagan finds a kind of contentment. "At Camp David," he says, "suddenly you're in a house that's house size." His trips beyond Washington ("a company town") remind him that it is "not quite as real there. You get out and you rediscover America." Reagan's daily newspaper reading is the editorials and the comics. He gets the news in a digest prepared by his staff. His favorite place remains his small ranch near Santa Barbara. He sounds almost biblical when he talks about it. "I look to the hills from whence cometh my strength. In my case, it is absolutely true." His college years stand out now more in his mind as he looks back. "It was a small school, and it was during the depths of the Depression. I think now I can see that there was a bond among our people. I worry that younger people don't realize how those times will be in their own lives, how close they'll remain with them."

Reagan's life has rushed by at a frantic pace, which seems not to perturb him at all. Of course he tries to slow it down with a laugh whenever he can. Now and then, when the band strikes up Hail to the Chief, the President leans over to Nancy and says, "They are playing our song." He chuckled to himself, an old sportscaster, that the baseball All-Star game was played without his even knowing. Even that garish glen-plaid suit that rattled European style arbiters brought a guffaw. "Did you see that suit on NBC? I like that suit. And then I saw an NBC shot indoors and that suit gleamed like it was lighted up."