>> they called it the gaze, a look of adoration so compelling, even the cameras can't break away. >> do i remember the gaze? >> it was a talent, because she looked at him as though he were a god. >> it was almost hypnotic, that gaze. >> she just saw in her husband somebody who should be president. >> thank you very much. >> her husband's glory was going to be their glory. >> the reagans were the first show business family to inhabit the white house. but nancy was more than ronald reagan's co-star. >> she wanted him to be the front man, and she wanted to be the producer, director behind the scene. >> how do you feel about that, mrs. reagan? >> i agree with everything he

says. >> he would have never been elected governor without nancy. he would have never been elected president without nancy. they were a team. she gave him strength. she gave him encouragement, she gave him hell. >> you are asking me? >> well, you first. >> i consider nancy to have been in some ways the most powerful, the most influential, the most indispensable partner in the modern presidency. >> i should ask him first. >> you want to get your story straight? ♪ >> we're talking to mrs. ronald reagan, and we have two more

quotes here. would you be a forceful first lady, in your opinion? >> depends on what you mean by forceful. >> it's 1980, and with her husband running for president, nancy reagan is in the spotlight. >> i have a feeling president carter doesn't have a foreign policy. >> nancy is tough, more than an adoring wife. well, i don't think i'm tough. >> where some see a good wife standing by her man -- >> she was always pushing to make sure that he succeed ed as any good wife would do. >> we can make america great again. >> others see her as the power broker in the relationship. >> well, go on. >> the brains behind her president. you read that. >> no, my husband is the brains of the family. >> nancy reagan was seen as a retrograde traditional figure,

yet it is hard to think of someone who was just so comfortable with her own power and so unafraid to use it. >> speaking of nancy, she's been the first lady in my life for a long time. >> nancy davis and ronald reagan met in hollywood in 1949. nancy was an ambitious young actress. >> nancy arrived in hollywood during time of the red scare. there was a lot of concern that communists were infiltrating hollywood. >> sees her name, nancy davis on the list of a supposed communist sympathizers. i mean, this is a career killer. >> so she went to her director margin leroy and he said well, look, i'm going have my good friend ronnie reagan, the president of the screen actor's guild look into this for you. >> he said no, it's another nancy davis. tell her not to worry. we'll stand behind her. >> but nancy says you need to

engineer a chance for me to meet him face-to-face. >> reagan, ten years' nancy's age, was a staunch communist. >> it was a pretext to get to know ronald reagan who is now a divorce say. >> they made it sound like they got married a week later. but he was still playing the field after his disastrous divorce from jane wyman. it was really three years later before they actually tied the knot. >> their wedding was also hastened by the fact that she discovered she was pregnant. >> on that spring day in 1952, nancy set aside her hollywood dreams to take on the role of mrs. ronald reagan. >> they needed each other. they made each other possible, and they played on the world stage together very well. >> i ronald reagan do solemnly swear that i will -- >> almost 30 years later, nancy

holds the bible as her husband is sworn in. it's the first inauguration to be held on the west side of the capitol, closer to california. >> and will to the best of my ability -- >> it was very glamorous and very hollywood. >> all these social people in their fur coats and their big jewelry. i think something like 704 private jets landed over the weekend. >> she wanted him in a morning suit, and then she was in a very expensive dress. so, yeah, it might have been a little overdone, but nancy did it her way. >> watching the new first lady, so comfortable and elegant on the world stage, few could imagine just how far she had traveled to get here. >> nancy was born in 1921 in flushing, queens. >> her mother was an actress named edith luckette. her father was kenneth robins, a

sort of aimless car salesman. >> they divorced when she was quite small, and her mother struggled for two years. nancy would literally be in a bassinet backstage, and finally she realized this wasn't working. >> so she leaves nancy with relatives in bethesda, maryland. and thus begins a six-year period where her mother essentially abandoned her. >> three years old is not the age when you want to see your mother driving off to the big city, leaving you behind. >> when nancy was 8, her mother settled down and married loyal davis, a distinguished neurosurgeon. nancy joined the couple in chicago. >> there for the first time in her life, she does get a sense of security. >> she also learned to navigate the social elite. >> nancy's mother loved social life. she would organize a dinner

party with the top doctors, the mayor of chicago, who was always a democrat, the governor of illinois who was always a republican. >> this couple comes out of nowhere and becomes a couple that everyone in chicago has to pay attention to. >> she always said to me, a lot of things happen at dinner party, bob. that was a lesson that i think she carried to washington. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and mrs. reagan. >> president reagan and first lady nancy made the rounds in washington tonight at a series of inaugural balls. >> there are ten of these. you're number seven, and we're going get to all of them -- no, no, ma'am eight. >> after dancing their way through nine vip balls, the reagans finally make it back to their new home. nancy recalls that night in her memoir, "as i close my eyes, i

remember thinking my lortd, hd, we are, sleeping in the white house. and here i am, sleeping with the president of the united states. but i found out the hard way that nothing, nothing prepares you for being first lady." tums versus mozzarella stick

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world. their every move under scrutiny. fortunately, this is something they both trained for. >> good evening. i am ronald reagan speaking for general electric. >> in 1954, two years into their marriage, reagan signed on to host a new tv show called "general electric theater." >> once upon a time there was a girl, and of course there was a boy who fell in love with her. >> general electric built them the house. >> you know, nancy, we'll see patty later on. >> hello. >> it was meant to be the show house for general electric appliances and lights and everything. we had more switches and gadgets in that house than you can shake a stick at, most of which we ever used. >> well, it's too complicated for me, but i do know that our heat pump is amazing and wonderful. >> my sister had more of the genie commercials. >> here is another one you ought to know. >> i got a little more of the crest toothpaste commercial.

>> come and meet the younger members of the reagan clan. >> i'm patty. >> now the reagans have a new family home. but nancy is disappointed to find that it needs a little work. >> floors and doors needed refinishing. the plumbing system required repair. >> there was a lot of mold on the walls in the private residence. >> some of the curtains were rotted through from the sun. >> it was shameful. the carters wouldn't spend any money on it, and she knew how to make it right. >> nancy turns to private donors, seeking tax deductible contributions to fix up the white house. >> which she caught a lot of flak for. >> nancy tried to be jackie kennedy in the white house, and the '80s were not the '60s. >> nancy reagan did all of this against the backdrop of a country that was plunging into a recession. >> names like an nonberg, sinatra and sassoon are on the list of donors.

>> the biggest checks come from people nancy has known since the reagans first entered politics. >> they were all from california, and they were all her friends. >> she knew what she was doing. i mean, these women all had husbands who were not only powerful but conservative republicans. >> she becomes sort of a queen bee of the set, and that becomes very important when her husband starts to launch a political career. >> you and i have a rendezvous with destiny. >> nancy's new friends were impressed by her husband's political views. >> they come to reagan and say you've got to run for governor. >> vote for me. you believe in your right the control your own destiny. >> she was involved in every campaign meeting from the first, and she had in a way better political strings than him. >> her modus operandi was this. we do a day campaigning, and let's say 8:00 the next morning,

she'd call her friends, and she would get all their feedback. you've got to do this, this and that. ronnie's got to do this. ronnie's got to do that. >> women have more time to devote to politics. obviously, their husbands are working. they have more time. >> in some ways i think she wanted to win more than he wanted to win. >> nancy's work paid off. the hollywood power couple became governor and first lady of california. >> he was not a great actor, but he sure became a hell of a politician with her help. >> to show how well they're settling into washington, the reagans take a stroll across lafayette park. >> i remember i had the news on, and i thought this is great. the reagans are going to get out. they're not going to be in a bubble. we're off to a great start. and then lo and behold, the next day -- >> the president -- there are shots.

>> we were at that hospital in three minutes, and she went racing towards the door. in her memoir, nancy recalls confusion and fear. >> i stammered where, where was he hit? they don't know. they're looking for the bullet. looking for the bullet? i've got see him, i said. wait, they're working on him. >> i was holding her hand. i kept saying it's going to be all right. it's going to be all right. she was just lost somewhere. she was in shock, i guess. >> the secret service came and told us that shots had been fired. go upstairs, turn on the tv. there is the scene being played out. >> the president has gone to george washington university hospital as has first lady nancy reagan. >> we got on a learjet and flew back to d.c. and went right to the hospital. nobody's really telling anybody anything. she's of course terrified that she is about to lose her husband.

and then they wheel him out, and he looked pretty good for a guy who had just been shot nearly in the heart. >> in our top story, president reagan's temperature is back to normal today. he continues to make satisfactory progress toward recovery. >> the president recovers, but the scars will stay with nancy for years to come. >> the impact of the shooting never left nancy reagan. having seen how close he came to dying, she was determined she was not going let that happen again. >> it then became a problem whenever he went out. >> somebody could come out of nowhere. bullets could fly out of nowhere. washington did seem a darker place. >> and this of course leads to the famous astrology business, which i'm sure you would have gotten to eventually. >> this astrologer calls her up and lets her know that, well, i could have predicted this. i knew that that wasn't a good day for him to be out of the house. circumstances the plane going to

take off for europe at 3:00 a.m. sunday or 7:00 p.m. saturday? those kinds of decisions were put to the astrologer. >> and the problem of course was in retrospect, she was telling someone who didn't have security clearance about his schedule. >> she was very scared, and she had some crutches that she needed. >> nancy's consultations with her astrologer are kept secret from all but her inner most circle. they would continue for many years. >> in all the time i worked with her, i never, ever knew about the astrologer. none of us did. >> but the astrologer wasn't the only person nancy was calling. >> i learned early on that i needed to keep her informed about everything, because somehow through her network and her network was extensive, she

would hear. >> she was the classic old-fashioned almost corporate wife who did everything behind the scenes. and the telephone was her sort of weapon of choice. >> she once joked to me that she wanted to be buried with the phone, just in case. >> she didn't go down to the cabinet room and sit in on meetings. she didn't go into the oval office and take part in the dialogue, but she was watching from above. >> she would ask questions, what happened here? what went wrong here? what are we doing about this? she stepped up when she saw that things were going the wrong direction for her husband. >> if you value your dear life, you didn't want nancy reagan coming after you with a hatchet. you might lose something. >> she basically started calling about two things. one, to discourage ron from giving up his secret service

detail because she said gadhafi and the puerto rican liberation front were both trying to kidnap him. and the other thing she wanted to talk about is why does the press hate me so much? >> nancy knows how to keep the people around her husband in line, but journalists in washington are a whole other beast. quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette (burke)stomer) happy anniversary. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained a farmers home policy for twelve consecutive months, right? ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (burke) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers.

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during her first year in the white house, nancy seems to be in a constant battle with the press. >> they were used to getting attention, hollywood attention. politics, though, brings a different kind of attention and different kind of scrutiny. >> the white house disclosed today that the president's wife does not own all of her clothing. >> i got a heads-up the disturbance was coming, and i walked down to the oval office, and i explained to the president we might want to give nancy a heads-up. and the president looked at me and said why don't you tell her? and she was livid. and i said you have to go through your wardrobe and start picking out some of these dresses and return them. >> for the amount mrs. reagan borrowed and still has not returned more than $100,000 worth of diamond jewelry. >> there are very strict regulations over reporting gifts. and nancy really didn't feel like she always had to follow the rules. >> the cameras i focused are on

lavish redecoration of the family living quarters and a $209,000 set of china. >> nancy's got to have this. nancy's got to have that. and she took a real beating, she did. >> i would get to work in the morning, and i would read some dreadful piece on the front page of "the new york times" or "the washington post" about mrs. reagan, and i would be almost sick to my stomach. >> the president and the first lady generally both don't get bad press simultaneously. they kind of take turns. and nancy really was the lightning rod. and that enabled ronnie to play the doting protective husband, which played well in the media. >> no one would say how many items mrs. reagan received or they're worth. >> in her memoir, nancy admits that the attacks got to her. "everything i did or said was instantly open to criticism." >> limousine, thousand a plate

china. >> my clothes, my friends, my taste in decorating, the way i looked at my husband. >> let's set that straight once and for all, because nancy has taken a bit of a bum rap. >> these stories not only hurt, they also made me damned mad. >> she was turning into a political liability. >> nancy was never popular with the press because she didn't trust the press. she didn't like the press. she was very controlled. and that's not unusual for someone from hollywood. they learn very early on not to say anything. >> you really hurt by some of the press that you've been getting. i mean hurt. >> yes. >> i guess what you really want for christmas is for the press to take a fresh look at you. >> that would be nice.

>> to turn the tide of hatred, nancy tries a new tactic. >> she was scheduled to speak at the al smith dinner back in new york. >> there is now a picture postcard of me as a queen. now that's silly, because i'd never wear a crown. it messes up your hair. >> the room went nuts. they just had a ball. >> she had seemed so icy and so unapproachable. that was a brilliant move. >> it demonstrated that she had a sense of humor about herself, which i don't think she did, but it did the trick. >> now she needs a cause to get behind. >> i asked her what she was interested in being involved in, and she said youth drug use and i remember thinking that's a downer. >> if you're an accomplished

drug user, you're an accomplice to murder. >> it's a way to push back against the '60s. feminism, rock 'n roll, smoking pot, clearly something is very wrong here and needs to be put right. >> tonight there is something special to talk about, and i've asked someone very special to join me. nancy? >> thank you. today there is a drug and alcohol abuse epidemic in this country, and no one is safe from it. because it's aimed at destroying the brightness and life of the sons and daughters of the united states. did all of you start first on pot? >> there is no moral middle ground. >> she was making drug abuse her personal crusade. >> indifference is not an option. >> telling to stay off drugs, stay in school. >> what should you do when someone offers you drugs? >> and when it comes to drugs and alcohol. >> say no! >> just say no. >> it's almost like saying if you remain celibate, you won't

get a venereal disease, you know? it seemed a little too simplistic. >> just say no, and throw people in prison. >> what a waste. what a wasted life. >> there was of course the irony. her two kids certainly smoked pot. so nunl of that was particularly popular with me. >> though it's true that every first lady needs to have a cause, in my view, nancy's chosen cause was her husband. >> good morning. >> reagan had to go out and talk to the press about something that was very, very difficult, and we worked out with nancy to get a birthday cake. and when he got to a point, you're in deep water. let's get him out of here. >> we are holding to 7% -- happy birthday to you. >> and two days early, aren't they coming fast without moving it up? >> make a wish!

>> two years into his first term, the question of whether the 72-year-old president should run again is on everyone's mind. >> maybe this would be a good time for you to tell him whether you think he should run again. >> oh no you don't. >> nancy, the protector in chief, won't show her hand. >> how would you like a piece of cake, sam? >> she was worried about his physical safety. he was in his mid-70s. he had been shot and nearly killed. i asked him not to run. >> that one is smaller. here. take mine and i'll trade. >> no, no, no, no. that's bad luck. >> my view is nancy reagan would have been very happy to go home after one term, think back on their successes, and look ahead to the future. >> i have learned not to argue with her. >> but i think she also realized that president reagan's work was not done. >> of course he is going to run, and he is going to win, and

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>> doing everything we can. >> thank you. >> and it took some prompting from wife nancy for the president to acknowledge -- >> that was her being his protector. him stumbling for the right words and taking a pause and her feeling that the pause was uncomfortable. >> with the election in full swing, the president's age has become a major issue. >> he was the oldest president ever at that point. >> he was slowing down, and she was right by his side, trying to, you know, keep it all afloat. >> president reagan's challenge is former vice president walter mondale, a relative youngster at 56. >> famously, his first debate with walter mondale did not go well. >> to try and say that we were

taxing the rich and not the other way around -- >> he seemed kind of out of sorts, slow. >> the system is still where it was with regard to the -- >> he stumbled and he fumbled. and that was because his debate preparation was too detail oriented. too many numbers, too many fax. >> did not do any of his homework. >> so he stunk. >> i thought boy, i'm glad i'm not in louisville, because somebody is going to have to deal with nancy reagan tonight. >> she wanted heads. she wanted bodies. she wanted it all. >> nancy describes her reaction in her memoir. there is no way around it. the debate was a nightmare.

>> what have you done to my husband, i said to mike beaver back at the hotel. whatever it was, don't do it again. >> as she would say all the time, you need to let ronnie be ronnie. ju just let ronnie be ronnie. he knows what to do. >> the second one, he had rested up, he walked in and mastered it. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> and at that point, the debate was over. and in many ways, the election was over. >> reagan carries an unprecedented 49 states in the '84 election, and nancy's eye turns towards securing his legacy. >> nancy, nancy!

>> in 1997, i asked her was there some area that you felt you have an effect? and she said oh, no, no. ronnie knew exactly what he wanted to do from the moment he was elected. and then she paused and very, very softly added "well, maybe the whole russian thing." and i was the whole russian thing? you mean the main thing of his administration? >> we will meet with the soviets, hoping we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of nuclear destruction. >> he had a lot of people on his right saying arms control is only for fools, and don't get into negotiation with the soviets, because they'll always cheat on you. she was much more mainstream. she didn't want her husband going down in history as a man who built in huge nuclear arsenal and possibly touched off a war. >> she believed very much in reagan's slogan of peace through strength. she thought they had done the strength side.

it was time to do the peace side. >> in november 1985, the moment finally arrives. the u.s. and soviet leaders are to meet for the first time since the start of the cold war. >> reagan had his team on his side of the table, and gorbachev on the other side. and that's fine, but nancy knew that that wasn't enough. she knew that ronnie was going to be best one-on-one along with gorbachev as much as she could get him. so she said, honey, what you really ought to do is take gorbachev for a walk. >> president reagan proposed the two leaders walk from the 18th century villa they were meeting in to a pool house on the edge of the lake. >> reagan and gorbachev decided they didn't even need to go into the group meeting because they had made so much headway alone. >> geneva was an incredible breakthrough. on the policy, but also on the personal relationship. you could tell there was a chemistry between the two of them that began that day.

>> everything happens the way nancy reagan had planned it. it was a great summit, and she had her fingerprints all over it. >> the bond forged in geneva will lead to a treaty banning two entire classes of nuclear weapons and effectively ends the cold war. just the legacy nancy was after. but this diplomatic triumph is about to be eclipsed by a major scandal. tums versus mozzarella stick (bell rings) when heartburn hits

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in november 1986, a story breaks. >> no comment. >> the u.s. government has been selling arms to iran, apparently in exchange for the release of american hostages. >> reagan never felt it was trading arms for hostages. it was just we'll send these arms, and oh, by the way, if we get our hostages back at the same time, wouldn't that be good. >> the president said no law has been or will be violated. >> then it is revealed that money from the arm sales was used illegally to send weapons to a right wing rebel group in nicaragua. >> the reagan presidency was on a death watch. >> i deeply believe in the

correctness of my decision. >> nancy reagan felt that the president had not been served well. >> she took it hard well. they go and impeach my husband. is this an impeachable offense? >> that is where you see nancy reagan spring in to action to rescue her husband. >> she knew that i had had the role. it wouldn't be ronnie's, and she had to go after somebody, and that somebody was don regan. >> donald reegan had replaced james baker as chief of staff at the start of the second term. he and nancy did not get along. >> i honestly trying to help donald reegan be a good chief of staff. like lesson number one, how he handled nancy. anybody who wasn't an egomaniac like he was would have said at least better listen to something. >> nancy reagan had a certain antenna, certain radar. >> if she sniffed out that there was someone in his circle who

wasn't a thousand percent loyal to ronnie, they were toast. >> she said, you know, jim, we're going have to make a change here. don regan is going have to go. and you know ronnie can't fire anybody. >> he did not like to get rid of people, but she did. she had no hesitation about that whatsoever. >> it didn't go well. >> the first lady was asked if the president had demanded she get off his back about firing donald reegan. >> how can the president deal with the soviets if he cannot settle a dispute between his wife and the chief of staff? >> she called me ten times a day to talk about it. >> one day don reegan came down to my office. he said i think i made a big mistake. i said what was that? he said, well, i was talking to the first lady, and she was really pushing me, and i lost my cool and i hung up on her.

and i said don, you what? >> you don't cross her like that, because at the end of the day, the president goes back to the living quarters and gets into bed with this person you just hung up on. and she gets the last word. >> what's the latest on the strain reported between mrs. reagan and white house chief of staff donald reegan? >> tom, a source very close to -- >> chris wallace is leaving the white house one day, and nancy reynolds, who is close to nancy reagan, comes up to him and tells him do you know don reegan hung up on the first lady today, knowing that chris wallace then at nbc is going to go right on the air that night in the newscast and say that. >> and two sources tell me that the chief of staff begun hung up on the first lady. they have not spoken since. >> you didn't hang up on ronald reagan's women. that is bad mistake.

>> that was curtains for don reegan. >> after clinging tenaciously for his job for months, donald reegan finally bowed to intense pressure and quit. >> reegan is out, but a year later, he gets his revenge. reegan reveals nancy's best kept secret, the astrologer she has had on the payroll since the beginning. >> what's going on? we think it's a one-day story. i said are you out of your mind? >> reagan was asked if he still allows astrology to still play a part of the makeup of his schedule. >> i can't because i never did. >> the president's approval ratings are sinking fast. >> his overall approval rating is down 17 points in less than two months. >> nancy believes that to win the country back, her husband must apologize for iran/contra. >> he is resisting admitting the obvious, which is that he has been trading arms for hostages. she knew she had to get him to this place where he could say what he needed to say to rescue his presidency.

>> so many people walk into the oval office and tell the president what he wants to know, not what he needs to know. very few people are willing to be the reality therapist. and nancy was willing to do that. >> a few months ago, i told the american people i did not trade arms for hostages. my heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true. but the facts of the evidence tell me it is not. >> he gives a speech. he gives it the way nancy wants it. >> you take your knocks. you learn your lessons, and then you move on. >> all of the sudden we saw the american people going, that's our president. >> and his approval ratings just skyrocket overnight. the nation's faith in president reagan is restored. it's been a difficult term for nancy, and she has one year left to bring the show to a rousing finale.

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i've been awfully busy with arms control and the inf treaty and the russians. >> i actually covered their 1988 visit to moscow.

there was a sense of hope, that had been missing since the second world war ended. >> reporter: in moscow, the two leaders finalized their nuclear treaty. but the highlight of the trip is a dramatic piece of street theater, orchestrated by nancy. >> to washington, he stirred everybody by walking down connecticut avenue to throngs of people. >> i want to say hello to you. >> great footage. i mean, just took the show, that day. >> the guy is a pr genius. >> nancy thought when we go to moscow, we're going to even the score, again. >> once in moscow, nancy reveals her plan. >> the ambassador -- nancy and i shared, with the president, an idea. and his answer was it sounds good to me.

and the secret service said absolutely not. >> so, i went to the president, mrs. reagan, in the bedroom. nancy is lying on the bed, with her feet on the pillows, propped up. reagan's walking around the bedroom. secret service. they're making their case. and said are you saying if the reagans go where we want to go, that you cannot protect them? and the lead person said, no, that's not what they are saying. nancy stood up, said, fine, let's go. we went to this place with a shopping area. >> and all of a sudden, the rbot was full of people applauding, cheering. >> they all wanted to touch him. they all wanted to see him. >> do not push these people. do not push these people.

>> kgb was nervous as all get out. >> nancy spotted some old carriage that was sitting there. and she grabbed reagan's hand, and pulled him up onto the carriage. >> after decades of this frozen relationship between these two, armed-to-the-teeth superpowers, to see this american president, arms held out, for -- for the poor, soviet people, who've never been anywhere near an american president. much less, one that looked like ronald reagan. it made the cold war seem like ancient history. >> when we got our footage, nancy just took over. thought, wow, she never ceases to impress me. >> some things, i'll be glad. i'll -- i -- i really will miss

you. >> well, we'll miss you. >> well, i thought you'd never say it, sam. my gosh. >> reporter: and just like that, eight years are over. the reagans leave the white house flying high. the oldest u.s. president has survived an assassination attempt and a major scandal. he will go down in history as a peacemaker. all, under the vigilant eye of the first lady. >> on the last trip of the administration, back home to california. on the floor of air force one, sam donaldson, lou canon, bill of cbs, were all three collaborating to write the last report of the reagan years. and who was overseeing it, looking down, as they were on the floor? not the president. nancy.

>> it's been eight years. been a big chunk of your life, that you've been the first couple in the white house. all this important stuff, swirling around you, every day. and now, that's going to go away. and you will leave the stage. >> she said we thought we'd have our golden years, and we would reminisce about, you know, our lives. sorry. >> so then, they leave and within four -- four years or so, he's been diagnosed with alzheimer's. he now has dementia. you know? that's a whole different phase of their life, of course. now, she's not going to be fancy nancy, anymore. she's going to be this new character, you know. and so, it just continued

through the rest of her life. >> reporter: when nancy reagan died, on march 6th, 2016, tributes came from all corners. her support for her husband, through his illness, and her work to legalize stem-cell research, had softened her image. but her greatest legacy remains. the protective power she wielded for eight years as a formidable, first lady. >> when i think of her, i often think of her as a child and frightened. she could be fierce, when she wanted to be. but, yeah, i think there was still a little, 3-year-old girl, whose mother was going away. people who are frightened and -- and go ahead, anyway. that's a certain kind of courage, too.

i can only tell you that, based on what he has done and what he cares about, and the kind of man he is, he should be the next president of the united states. bill clinton. [ cheers and applause ] >> i am, also, the only person running for president, who can have my real campaign slogan. when you think of hillary, think of our real slogan. buy one, get one free. >> this was just unprecedented. i mean, no president had ever campaigned saying, if you elect me, you're going to get my wife, also. you know, that was not anything american people were ready for. >> reporter: hillary rodham clinton is running