The public soon learned, via the press, that Reagan had not only walked into the hospital on his own power (no stretcher had been available) but had uttered such witticisms as “Honey, I forgot to duck” (to wife Nancy) and, to his surgeons, “I hope you are all Republicans.”32 In the recovery room, his mouth covered by an oxygen mask, he had scribbled on a pad: “All in all, I would rather be in Philadelphia.”
