Scott Fitzgerald: “as one of the two Senators from Illinois, I am very proud of Ronald Reagan and his contributions to this country. Ronald…”

“as one of the two Senators from Illinois, I am very proud of Ronald Reagan and his contributions to this country. Ronald Reagan is the only American President who was, in fact, born in Illinois. Many people think of Abraham Lincoln as having been born in Illinois, but he was actually born in Kentucky and later moved there. Of course, I think there is no question that Ronald Reagan will join Abraham Lincoln as one of our Nation's greatest Presidents. I only want to say a few words about him. I didn't actually serve in the Senate when he was President. I didn't ever have the opportunity to get to know him. I did, however, get the opportunity to meet him once as a very young man, when I was about 20 years old or so and he was campaigning for President in 1980. But my first real recollection of him came from watching his address on television in 1976 at the Republican National Convention. He had lost the primaries to incumbent President Gerald Ford but had nonetheless had a very strong showing. He gave a speech at that 1976 convention that literally brought down the house and fired up the delegates. I remember watching that at home and thinking, What an outstanding leader. You could see that this man certainly still had a great contribution to make. He won against all the odds. All the pundits and many of the commentators dismissed Ronald Reagan. They thought he was too old. They thought he was too conservative to run and be elected President in 1980.”