Excitement of Festivities Reminds First Lady of a Wedding Day

Nancy Reagan compares the excitement and emotion of her husband’s second inauguration to “like when you get married” and acknowledged that at first she had “dragged my heels” against his running again.

In a taped interview for ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” to be aired today, Mrs. Reagan said she was “so excited that I don’t remember everything” that happened when the President was sworn in for the first time four years ago.

She also denied that she had urged her husband to devote the next four years to establishing his place in history as “the great peacemaker.”

“I don’t think he’s ever thought of himself like that, and I haven’t either. He wants to do the best job he can for the country. You know, he’s a man of very little ego.”

As for whether the second time around is a “comedown from the first,” she said:

“Oh, I don’t feel that way. I find that moments that are very, very exciting and emotional like when you get married--I can barely remember all the things that happened. I was so excited that I don’t remember everything, and I don’t remember everything at the first inaugural.

“Now this time,” she said with a laugh, “I’ll remember . . . I hope.”

But she said, “Oh sure, oh sure, I dragged my heels,” when asked whether she was less than enthusiastic about the President’s decision to make a bid for reelection. But she came around to his point of view that a second term was needed to reach his goals in the presidency.

She said she and the President discussed “how strongly he felt about continuing what he was doing, and how it took more than four years to really turn everything around that he wanted to turn around.”