This Sunday would have been Ronald Reagan's 100 birthday. The press will be full of stories and coverage of this. Most will be reverent and celebratory of the man, his life and his presidency. This is a surprising turn, since he was condemned and belittled on a daily basis while serving as our 40th president.
I was still a teenager during Reagan's presidency, so some may say I was too young too know what I am talking about. But I remember all to well how he was thought of at the time. He was a heartless, evil, senile old racist who was too stupid to understand diplomacy, too stubborn to change and too air-headed to run the country. The press' treatment of him was eerily similar to that of George W. Bush.
This is a bit from Saturday Night Live during the Iran-Contra affair (notably not a high point). It shows that the perceived notion of Reagan in the press and the White House's use of that image to disguise the "truth". And it's really funny.
Following my post, Reagan/Obama 1984, I received comments that today's GOP is too far right of Reagan. But that couldn't be more wrong. Let's try taking a look at the big picture. During the Great Depression, the country began a lurch to the left. Reagan, who was once a Roosevelt Democrat, was famous for declaring, "I didn't leave the Democratic party. The party left me". Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon were a fixture in that leftward tilt. President Kennedy's tax plan was more conservative than anything Nixon did in office.