From Actor to Politician: 1966, Ronald Reagan's Pivotal Year

County Fairground, 1966
In the early days of Reagan's candidacy, Ray remembers, he was one of a very small number of press representatives covering the events. "At most, the local paper sent someone," he recalls. "His big kickoff was the Orange County Bar-B-Q, and I drove him down there in my Mustang. On the way down, he hardly spoke but spent most of the time with a deck of 4-by-6 cards with speech reminders or highlights. Along the way, he lost one of his contact lenses in the front seat and was nearly blind. He was on his hands and knees in the parking lot, feeling around on the floor carpet, trying to find it."

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