 It's always a smaller advantages of the job I guess Through some piece of incredible last night I was watching some outtakes No, and you were trying sure We good All right Beyond the obvious purpose of putting the man in the job What is the purpose that the inaugural process serves? Well, I think it's very important Because we're so unique in all the world with this system of ours. We the people As our Constitution says all those other Constitutions are documents in which the government tells the people what they can do ours is one in which we the people tell the government what it can do and To have every four years that display of how Without violence or anything or tanks in the street We the people voluntarily Change the government decide what the government or who will be Managing the government and it's a peaceful process and those were defeated to accept it Wait for the next election so forth, and I think it's all there in the importance of the that we make of the Inauguration Tell me about the Bible and the passage Well, I can do better than that. I Assume you mean the the Bible that was used in the swearing in Well, this was my mother's Bible and it is second Chronicles the 8th chapter the 14th verse And it says if any people which are called by my name shall hound them at humble themselves in pray and Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land and that part is underlined as And there is a note beside this that my mother had written and it said a most wonderful verse For the healing of the nations And I thought that was kind of appropriate Yes Oh that was a very unusual thing of course and We had quite a bit of consultation over it with the committee that stages the inaugural the congressional committee but most of our military medics Who were in the city for the purpose? Just said that there was a real threat to health of Particularly the young people in all the bands, you know, and break many bands in that parade that they They really could be Endangering themselves and they'd been out there and testing the wind chill factor and everything and So I heeded their recommendation that we cancel the parade and Then We had to be indoors and what it was in the rotunda of the capital for the squaring in and so forth but We did I think make it up in a way to the all the young people in the bands It would come here from all over the country and then didn't get to march and play they were all brought to a great convention hall and Nancy and I journeyed out there and met and I addressed them and we We both did spoke to them and there were other people there and they They were very pleased with that outcome What is I Mean other than the size of it. What is there a material difference in those private ceremonies? Well, of course it would be better if you were out and they could be filling them all as they did in 1980 In the 1980 election And yet it was still impressive in there and there was quite a large crowd that could be in that place so it wasn't a Private in a closet someplace swearing in What do you think the speech? should do well, I think the speech is a among other things a is principally to state your philosophy and your In a sense your agenda without going into specifics about various bills and so forth, but the overall theme That you hope to bring to government It was nice to hear you say some nice things about president Carter as he and his turn had said about president Ford. I Would like you to speak to the point of the conciliatory Function of the speech as well. Well, I've never thought of Politics in That the rivalry in politics should become a personal Assault on the individual on the other side. It's a The very fact that you have different political parties means that people do have different views as to the form that government should take and So it was there was courtesy and Between us and I think acceptance by him What was the right like Well, as I say just about that tone I come to the White House here. He is waiting and we go to the scene of swearing in and the in the car together and I don't see the There isn't a loud in general Exchange of views or anything, but it was it was pleasant Okay, I have since learned that it wasn't your choice But I would like to hear about the change from the east to the west side I guess it being fortuitous you being from that part of the country, but Well, no what had actually happened it is the Congress that made that decision I'm glad they did and I think it should be that way because When you compare the two sides of the of the capital now That one is far more impressive and makes possible far more people Viewing it as you look down the mall, but I guess they'd always wanted to be on that side but in recent years there was there apparently were two buildings the National Art Gallery and the Air and Space Museum Who were under construction for quite a long time and with scaffolding and all that was there on the on the west side and Now for the first time everything was clear and the mall was in beautiful shape at all and so They decided that's where it would be Which inaugurations do you admire and why well now? How do you mean by that? I mean in speech. Do you like who's were you at what? Oh my I? Don't think I've ever thought about them in that way, and they they want to come along every four years but I do recall that I Had a change of sides in my life I started out in the other party and so was very happy and some successive wins And then while I was still in that party, however I switched to support of of president of General Eisenhower and it while still a Democrat I had signed a Message with a number of other people to send to him as a general asking him to run for the presidency and Stipulating which party we thought he belonged to actually we didn't know him being in the military never participated in politics before but then when he decided to run and Turned out that he wanted to run on the Republican ticket well. I thought to myself. I can't be a hypocrite I wanted him to be president. I believe that he'd be a good president and Party makes no difference. He's now going to run and I'm going to support him Were there anything or was there anything were there any things that you would determine? Not to have at your ceremony and contrary anything that you were just bound to determine you No, I can't think of anything like that. I I think I would have been a little in awe of Trying to make decisions about that particular function just because I was now the fellow that was going to take the oath On that very particular point When you are standing there one of only 40 people who have ever spoken those words Is there any way to describe the feeling that you have or is it I don't know whether there there is or not I know that you have a great sense of responsibility and My prayers leading up to that and at that time we're Asking his help to to carry me. I Understood very vividly what Abraham Lincoln meant When he said in this job That he couldn't Have done this job for 15 minutes if he did not know that he could call upon one who was wiser and stronger than all others and Then looking out at that great crowd of people out there and realizing the responsibility Is a kind of a humbling experience You humbly do ask for help Oh well Yes from the standpoint that I Never in my life Had ever thought about public life And I always believed that you have to pay your way. So when I was fairly successful in the theatrical world I Took advantage of that to support the causes and individuals I believed in to Speak at fundraisers and that sort of thing and and thought that that was The part of this type of citizenship that I could contribute to to public life and When in 1964 I made that speech on national television in support of Barry Goldwater and The following year To that was over when a delegation of Republican Party called upon me to Run for governor against the then incumbent Was running for reelection. I thought they were out of their minds And I told them I said no you pick someone and I'll campaign for them like I did for him and all the others and Finally they kept after us to the point that Nancy and I began to lose sleep We began to wonder if they kept putting it on the basis that I could win and I was the Offered the best chance of victory and our party was badly divided after that 64 campaign and in dire straits Finally we were looking at each other Nancy. I am saying can we Can we live with ourselves if they're right and I'm wrong and Finally I gave in and you know the funny thing was I Decided that All right, I would run but they kept putting it on the basis that I could win and You know, I think really in my mind I thought I'd agreed to something that would be over in November and It wasn't till later in the campaign that I said wait a wait a minute Maybe I've signed on for something a lot longer than election day and But I must say a few months and I inherited some very Wild problems when I became governor. There were some things there that were in need of changing and a few months after dealing with those problems Nancy And I were sitting in the living room one night and found ourselves saying to each other that Doing what we were doing made everything we'd ever done before look as dull as dishwater Because it was one thing to go out and make speeches on the mashed potato circuit about the things that I thought should be done in Government know, but it was a lot different to finally find that I had a hand in trying to change them Okay, now that the job has run considerably past November Well, I don't think anyone ever leaves this job without Being aware of the things still undone the things that you still haven't been able to achieve and get through the Congress and all so that that's a source that of I hate to use the word regret because I don't really feel that way. I think we've served and we've served our the two terms here and You can't help but look forward to now resuming a lot of things that you gave up like Much more frequent trips to the ranch and a lot more horseback riding But also I think that I will be very busy back on the mashed potato circuit as I call it Speaking out for the things that I believe in and that still have not been accomplished for example a Balanced budget in the cons amendment to the Constitution. That is absolutely essential if we're ever to get a handle on this wild deficit spending and added to that is I would like very much To see a president have what 43 governors had and what I had and that is the right to line item veto Or to line item reduce as a governor. I could get an appropriation a spending bill And if I believed in the executive Level of government that we didn't need that much money Instead of vetoing it totally. I could simply veto out a portion of the money and reduce the amount and I did that and actual vetoing of bills 943 times in eight years as governor without being overridden once which was kind of revealing Because there the legislature has to vote the budget by a two-thirds Majority and they would vote for these things when they were buried in a great huge bill But when they were brought out singly and they had to vote to override a veto by the same two-thirds majority But have to expose themselves as voting for this spending measure They wouldn't do it so I was never overridden