During the 1980 presidential campaign I served as one of Ronald Reagan's three principal speechwriters. I came to this task having drafted some 46 radio scripts for Reagan over the previous three years and having read hundreds of other speeches that the man had written himself.
In late October 1980, I was assigned to draft Reagan's election eve national television speech. The idea—initially—was to summarize the main points of his campaign for the presidency, and to illustrate how his thinking on public issues would serve the American people.
The result was a 16-page, 4,520-word double-spaced draft. The first version was circulated to various campaign personnel, and their suggestions were incorporated in a second draft dated October 27.
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