US Presidency
1980

This is such a time, and I can tell you that the choice to be made this year can transform our own personal lives and the life of our country as well. During the last Presidential campaign, I crisscrossed this country and I listened to thousands and thousands of people-housewives and farmers, teachers and small business leaders, workers and students, the elderly and the poor, people of every race and every background and every walk of life. It was a powerful experience, a total immersion in the human reality of America. And I have now had another kind of total immersion, being President of the United States of America. Let me talk for a moment about what that job is like and what I've learned from it. I've learned that only the most complex and difficult task comes before me in the Oval Office. No easy answers are found there, because no easy questions come there. I've learned that for a President, experience is the best guide to the right decisions.