Thomas Daschle: “we have heard many remembrances of President Reagan these last 3 days. One of my own favorite stories about President…”

“we have heard many remembrances of President Reagan these last 3 days. One of my own favorite stories about President Reagan appeared in the Boston Globe on St. Patrick's Day, 1983. It begins: In his corner office, House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. has proudly hung a photograph of President Reagan. It shows the two men, their faces agitated in the heat of a argument over jobs and the economy, each jabbing a finger at each other. Underneath, a puckish inscription from `Ron Reagan' to `Tip' reads, `From one Irishman to another--Top o' the morning to you.' That photograph conveys the flavor of perhaps the most important political relationship in Washington, for it juxtaposes the sharp partisan confrontations between the two men with the personal cordiality that suits the current mood of bipartisanship. The headline on that article read: ``Reagan and O'Neill: Each One Needs the Other.'' Ronald Reagan was many things in life: An actor, a Governor, the President. For countless millions throughout the world, he was the voice and the image of American confidence and optimism. Even those who disagreed strongly with many of his policies admired his sunny disposition, his easy grace and charm, his quick wit, and his unshakable conviction, as he said so often, that America's best days are just ahead of us.”