ABSTRACT
Ronald Wilson Reagan was inaugurated as the fortieth president of the United States on January 20, 1981. Reagan's political success and his focus on the economy made him the ideal candidate in the 1980 presidential race. The problems confronting the nation demanded forceful leadership, and the major role that Ronald Reagan was eager to fill in January 1981 was that of a president riding tall in the saddle again. Reagan's approach to governing California was animated by a belief in cutting the size of government. In Sacramento, he set out to "squeeze, cut, and trim the cost and size of government." In the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan was able to use incumbent President Jimmy Carter's own technique against him. In his successful 1976 presidential campaign, Carter had developed a "misery index"–a combination of inflation and unemployment–to measure economic conditions.
