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Never before had a U.S. President been shot and recovered to appear before Congress. Rarely, if ever, had the Secret Service felt the need to post an agent at the President's side as he worked his way slowly through the cheering House chamber. And on only a few occasions had a President enjoyed such a shouting, clapping, emotional reception from the assembled lawmakers. Reagan's voice was thin and hoarse, but his complexion was ruddy. He deftly turned his own recuperation into a powerful plea for his prescription for curing the nation's economic ills.
The sustained standing ovation that greeted the President was bipartisan. The lawmakers demonstrated their affection for a likable man, who had borne up under the shooting ordeal with courage, humor and no hint of self-pity. Sensitive to the situation, Reagan, with a thespian's finesse, did not overplay his role. His voice faltered only slightly as he expressed his and Nancy's thanks for "your messages, your flowers, and most of all, your prayers—not only for me but for those others who fell beside me." That public outpouring of "friendship and, yes, love" was, he said, the answer to those who claimed that the shooting showed the U.S. was "a sick society."
Reagan stirred loud laughter when he pulled a letter from his pocket and read the words of eight-year-old Peter Sweeney, a second-grader in Rockville Centre, N.Y., "I hope you get well quick or you might have to make a speech in your pajamas." Reagan let the laughter subside, then read Peter's postscript: "If you have to make a speech in your pajamas, I warned you." More laughter. The letter, part of a class project, had been picked out of mountains of mail by Chief Speechwriter Ken Khachigian, but no one on Reagan's staff knew that the President had decided to read it on television.
Reagan's restrained references to the shooting had been drafted without the aid of his writers; some of his advisers had urged him to say more. Quite rightly, Reagan had replied: "I want them [his TV viewers and critics] to say that I didn't exploit the shooting." He did not.
But as Reagan's voice grew stronger in his spirited assault on alternatives to his spending and taxing plans, Democrats found much less to applaud. They knew that he was there, however amiably, to do them in politically. His biggest ovation in a 20-minute speech that was interrupted 13 times by applause came as he chided Congress for its past practice of taking only timid steps toward change. "The old and comfortable way is to shave a little here and add a little there," he said. "Well, that's not acceptable any more. I think this great and historic Congress knows that way is no longer acceptable." Republicans led the shouts of approval, then rose to applaud longer.