Dana Rohrabacher: “Everyone knows Ronald Reagan the politician. We can go on with all these lists of speeches and the bills and things, but…”

“Everyone knows Ronald Reagan the politician. We can go on with all these lists of speeches and the bills and things, but I think the day I remember the most about Ronald Reagan was in North Carolina. In 1976, Reagan was running and I was the assistant press secretary. And here he had probably 5,000, 10,000 people in this parking lot for a rally, and this lady comes up to me and says, You're with Governor Reagan? And I said, Yes, I am. She said, I have seven blind children here, and they can't get through the crowd. And I wonder if maybe after the speech we can bring them over here and Governor Reagan could shake hands with them. And I said, Let me clear it. Let me find out. So I went behind the podium there with Mike Deaver. I said, Mike, there's a lady here; she's got these blind children and they can't get through the crowd. They would really like to shake hands with Governor Reagan. And Reagan was two steps behind us. He hears me and he jumps right in between us and he says, Of course we're going to say hello to those children. But, Dana, we don't want this to be a press event. And you get all the reporters in the buses, and I'll come right over here and spend a couple minutes with those children. So, sure enough, the reporters head to the buses, and the kids are brought back there behind the podium. And there's Reagan and he is talking to them. They are about 7, 8 years old. And this is the sense of this man. He says, You know, I know that you can't see me.…”