• Stephanopoulos: Now you describe yourself as a Reagan Republican. Describe the journey.

• Mitt Romney: Well, there is a change there, which is back in the, I guess, early '80s or so, I was really concerned about, well, what President Bush -- well, then it was Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush, called voodoo economics and I wondered if that would work.

Well, you know what? The Reagan economics did work, him cutting taxes and cutting back on spending stimulated our economies. From 1982, America has created, what, 30-40 million new jobs. Europe and Japan have created almost none.

The Reagan revolution of lower government taxation, lower spending, boosting our military strength, those things helped create a world which is very favorable today.

So I've become a believer. The older I get, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets.

And when I ran for governor, there's no question, the principles that Ronald Reagan espoused were the basis of my campaign. I said I would not raise taxes, despite a $3 billion deficit in our state.

I said I wouldn't borrow more money, I'd hold onto our borrowing cap, and, by doing that, I'm convinced we were able to turn the state around, add thousands of new jobs.

We went after our schools to improve them. We took Reagan principles, they were adopted for our state in a way that I think made a real difference.