The President's Been Shot (page 3 of 5)

"Mightier Than the Bullet"

Tuesday, March 31
The wounded President had been in the hospital for less than 36 hours when The Washington Post hit the streets just before midnight on March 31. The lead headline of the paper, dated April 1, read, "Reagan, in Good Spirits, Making a Fast Recovery." The Washington Star was more explicit: "Reagan Works from Hospital: Sees visitors, signs bill on dairy prices, 'business as usual,' White House insists." That was how the story was told across the country. An overnight national Washington Post/ABC News poll indicated that the President's approval rating had jumped from 62% to 73%.

Baker, Meese and Deaver had brought the 18-page White House news summary, put together each weekday by the press secretary's office, to the recovery room for what was announced as a regular 7 a.m. planning meeting -- except that it was being held in the intensive care unit. The windows were covered so that no one, gawker or assassin, could peer in.

Reagan had dozed on and off through the dark morning hours of Tuesday, March 31. Oxygen tubes were clipped into his nose. By 6:45 he had been propped up in bed and could brush his teeth. Deaver began the meeting by telling the President not to worry, that the White House was still functioning like a well-oiled machine. Reagan's response was breathless and garbled, but it was a good line: "What makes you think I'd be happy to hear that?"

The event of the day was the President's signing of a piece of legislation, S. 509, canceling some price supports for dairy farmers. He received morphine just before that, and his signature was so shaky that reporters questioned whether it was a forgery. But one newspaper, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, ran the signature across a full page, with the headline "President Reagan's Pen Is Mightier Than the Bullet."

That day, sleeping on and off, Reagan wrote more notes -- "Will I be able to ride my horses again? Will I be able to cut brush?" He also saw his wife and children, who had flown in from California and from Omaha, Nebraska. At midday, White House physician Daniel Ruge told him that Jim Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty had been shot, and that Brady had severe brain damage.

"Oh damn, oh damn," Reagan said, his eyes filling with tears. "We must pray. That means four bullets hit. Good Lord."

At nine o'clock Tuesday night, Reagan was moved to a suite on the third floor of the hospital. He was in pain and still needed oxygen to breathe.

The Wednesday morning papers -- and the White House summary -- carried the news that gunman John Hinckley was an obviously disturbed young man who'd arrived in Washington on March 29 by bus. He had a ticket to New Haven, Connecticut, because he wanted to see Jodie Foster, a movie star who was a student at Yale. On Monday he saw Reagan's schedule in The Washington Star, including the speech at the Hilton. At 12:45, he wrote an unmailed letter to Foster, saying he intended to kill the President to prove his love for her: "I would abandon the idea if only I could win your heart."

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