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Begin Video Clip CSPAN/FIRST LADIES NANCY REAGAN APRIL 2, 2014 8:00 a.m. ET (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NANCY REAGAN, FORMER FIRST LADY: So, all of you, thank you for your support and to the kids for just saying no. Thank you. My hope is that the women of the future will feel truly free to follow whatever paths their talents and their natures point to. I think they thought that the White House was so glamorous and your role was so -- what you did was so glamorous, your life was so glamorous, and all they saw were the parties and the meeting people and, you know -- and I've got to tell you, I never worked harder in my life. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUSAN SWAIN, HOST: Nancy Reagan served as long-time political partner, fiercest protector, and ultimately as the caretaker for President Ronald Reagan. An involved first lady, she was active in key staff decisions and policymaking and in campaigning. She made drug use her signature White House issue with her "Just Say No" campaign. Good evening, and welcome to C-SPAN series "First Ladies: Influence and Image." Tonight, we're going to tell you the story of Anne Frances Robbins, known to us all as Nancy Reagan, the wife of our 40th president. Let me introduce our two guests who'll be with us for the next 90 minutes. Judy Woodruff is co- managing editor and co-anchor of PBS's "NewsHour." In her earlier years, she covered the Reagan White House for NBC and later on co-produced a documentary about the first lady. Thanks for being with us. JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR, PBS'S "NEWSHOUR": It's great to be here. SWAIN: Carl Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. He's a Californian who has been covering national politics since 1984, and he co-wrote a book about the Reagan presidency with his father, Lou Cannon, the Reagan biographer. Carl, nice to see you. CARL CANNON, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Thank you. SWAIN: To both of you, we're going to start this program just a little bit differently. We looked at hundreds of hours of video about the Reagan presidency in the C-SPAN library and decided to start with a closing chapter. This is footage from the Reagan funeral, when Mrs. Reagan said goodbye to her husband of many years, and we thought that it symbolized this partnership that you both covered so much. Let's watch and we'll talk a little bit more about their relationship. It's hard to believe it was nearly 10 years ago, Carl Cannon, but as we look at that, as we've been working our way through this series of first ladies' biographies, especially in the 20th century, many of the first ladies were political partners with their husbands. Was this a particularly special political partnership between the two of them? CANNON: Oh, it was, from the very beginning, from the Sacramento days, from the Hollywood days. But the partnership that we see on display there, as Nancy pats the coffin, it's like -- it's heart- breaking. It's like she lost him twice. And as she pats that coffin, you imagine her patting his shoulder every night for 10 years. She said goodbye to him, goodnight, and every night, it was like losing him again. And I think -- Judy can talk to this, too -- but it's like -- I think Nancy got a rough start in this town, she got a rough start in Sacramento, but she won everyone over in the 10 years that he had Alzheimer's and she took care of him. WOODRUFF: And I think -- I was just going to say, Carl put it very well, she called it, I think, the longest goodbye. Maybe they weren't, you know, her words, but people around them called it the longest goodbye, because it was 2000 -- it was 1994 when Ronald Reagan wrote that letter and announcing to the world that he had Alzheimer's. And of course, no one knew then what it meant. I mean, that was at a time when people knew of Alzheimer's, but it wasn't nearly as familiar to us as it is today. And there was no way of knowing how long he would live. He would leave another 10 years, but out of public view. But she was with him. They were in their home in Bel Air, in Los Angeles, and their closeness was with them right up until the end. And you see that in that video. CANNON: Susan, the christening of the USS Ronald Reagan happened in 2001. My father and I were both there. And Nancy came out to Newport, and it was a cold, blustery day in April, and there were parties afterwards. And we said, "Are you staying?" And she said, "No, I have to get back. Ronnie needs me. He doesn't like it. He gets agitated when I'm not in the house." I mean, I'm sure she had help, but she really was his caretaker. SWAIN: So from -- not just those last 10 difficult years for the two of them, but let's have you both talk a little bit about what the partnership meant in terms of national politics. What did each one of them bring to the table politically to make this a successful quest for the White House, ultimately? WOODRUFF: Well, we could talk for a long time about that, because it was a remarkable partnership. It was a strong marriage. They loved each other deeply. But it was also very much a working partnership, in that once it was clear that Ronald Reagan, I think, was interested in politics -- and it all started with that GE -- being the spokesman for GE, traveling around the country. And I believe he was hired by GE, I want to say 1955, '54, '55, somewhere in there. And from that moment on -- and once he -- the friends they made in Los Angeles decided Ronald Reagan would be a great candidate for governor, and then, of course, he went on to be elected governor in 1966. She was the person who -- people I've talked to called her the personnel director, because she made sure that the people around her husband were people who always had his best interests at heart. That was one of the principal things she brought to the relationship, always having his back. SWAIN: Carl, before you answer, I actually want to show a brief clip from "Role of a Lifetime," the PBS documentary you were involved with, and she's talking about what she brings to this partnership, in terms of looking out for her husband. Let's watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NANCY REAGAN: I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from being isolated. I talk to people, they tell me things, and if something is about to become a problem, I'm not above calling a staff person and asking about it. I'm a woman who loves her husband, and I make no apologies for looking out for his personal and political welfare. (END VIDEO CLIP) SWAIN: So, to you, for your thoughts on this partnership. CANNON: Well, Judy said that she was the personnel director. Stu Spencer called her that. And Stu is the political consultant who ran Reagan's first campaign for governor in 1966. And in September of 1980, when things go -- start to hit a rocky road, and the campaign's in a little bit of trouble, it's Nancy who says, "Where's Stu? Where's Stu Spencer?" And Stu -- they call -- Deaver called him. And Mike Deaver was only back in the campaign because Nancy had helped bring him back. And Stuart Spencer, when he worked for Ronald Reagan at the 1980 convention, he asked one person it was OK, Gerry Ford, who he'd been his client. When he was going to come back to the Reagan campaign full-time, there was one person he asked Deaver about is it OK, and that's Nancy. How's Nancy with this? Nancy was -- well, it's her idea, and Stuart was on. So it goes way back. SWAIN: We'll have lots of time in our program to talk more about the White House here, so we're going to go back in time to learn a bit more about Nancy Reagan's biography. Before we do that, let me tell you about how you can be involved. If you've been watching this series, you know that your questions really make it so much more interesting for us so we can take the conversation in the direction of your interest. There's lots of ways to be involved. You can go to Facebook and find C-SPAN's page. There's already a discussion underway. You can also tweet us @firstladies. And finally, you can used the good old- fashioned telephone. Our phone lines will be open, 202-585-3880, if you live in the Eastern or Central time zones. If you live in the Western time zones, California and beyond, 202-585-3881. And we'll get to calls in probably about 10 minutes or so, but you can get in line so we can get to your comments. Well, let's go back to where she was born, 1921 in New York City, but her early days were not easy ones for her family. Can you tell us the story? WOODRUFF: Well, it was not, I would say, the smoothest childhood.
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