Mark Morford on the mourning of Reagan (snippet):

....As for the mourners, they weep not because Reagan was such a profound intellect, not because he was such a generous humanitarian, not because he balanced budgets or worked to end poverty or because he, as Clinton did, brokered peace in Northern Ireland and came closer than any president in history to finally ending conflict in the Middle East, and nearly winning the Nobel Peace Prize in the process. No, they want Reagan canonized because he was a wildly successful, hugely manipulative media presence. Because he charmed them to death, because he shaped American politics like no other president in recent history. This is what people are remembering: essentially, a surreal and often sad and yet indelible hunk of American history, a time when America fell under a slick jingoistic spell and conservatism found its voice and became much of what it is today: you know, mean-spirited and hawkish and ideologically lopsided, corporate sponsored, homophobic and fiscally reckless and more oriented toward one overarching agenda: military might uber alles. This, then, is what we have to thank Reagan for. A bruising, devious, glossy worldview, fiscal irresponsibility, the art of the slick media sound bite, humanitarianism treated like a disease to be eradicated. And now, with his passing, it's only appropriate to try to show a little respect. After all, you have to give the man credit -- he did indeed do a great deal to alter the timbre and direction modern American politics. His legacy is convoluted and eternally debatable and yet absolutely, undeniably extraordinary. He is the GOP's icon of finger-wagging righteousness. He is their demigod o' slippery prefab swagger. His attitudes and policies have had a titanic effect on the shape of modern American conservatism....

I just can't image what a horrible world we would have now if Clinton had not beaten Bush I in 1992. We are still gasping for the last few wisps of political perfume from the Clinton Administration as we slowly succumb to the overwhelmingly rotten and toxic stench blasting incessantly from the White House (and Congress) today.