Who is ever ready for the Presidency?
Very good point.
I think that Ronald Reagan was. He had spent the previous 25 years thinking about policy issues, writing and delivering a series of radio addresses that discussed national problems and offered possible solutions to them. He was governor of the largest state in the union for two terms, faced down obnoxious students and grasping unions, and left the state in better financial shape than he had found it. By the time Reagan became President, he has been tested and was ready to assume its mantle.