I remembered an invitation from him, when he was governor of California, to come to Sacramento in August 1974, after I resigned as secretary of the treasury in the Nixon administration. He knew I had moved to California and invited me to lunch. We sat together with a few other people and talked for several hours. He grilled me about how the presidency worked. He was interested in nuts and bolts: the process of assembling the budget, dealing with the cabinet and individual cabinet members, ideas for reform of the executive branch, prospects for containing federal spending—on and on. I came away convinced that this man did not simply want to be president: he had an agenda, and he wanted to know how to carry it out.

I rememberedhaving Ronald Reagan to dinner at my house on the Stanford campus in July 1978, when he was a presidential candidate. He was questioned, argued and agreed with, lectured and listened to, by among others Milton and Rose Friedman, Bill Simon, Martin and Annelise Anderson, Ezra Solomon, and Alan Greenspan. Years later he remarked, I noticed you watching me closely that evening, and I wondered what you were thinking. I had been trying to decide whether he had real views or canned statements. I could see his views were real and ran deep.

I could talk to Ronald Reagan candidly, and he would listen. He had strong views, and I respected them. I felt we could work together. So during the presidential campaign I became chairman of his economic