Reply #9: You make several good points. Let me respond to just 2.

[chieftain]

You rightly point out the deification of Reagan. Has there ever been more propaganda produced to cover up the basic wrongheadedness of an administration? The Reagan legacy should be a case study for PR classes on how to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
Somewhere in the era of Gingrich and Luntz, the Republicans discovered the power of ridicule. I still remember Jim Nicholson when he was RNC Chair staging an event ridiculing Gore's childhood stays in a DC hotel and on the farm in Tennessee. It was so vile and untrue, but effective.
A common thread in the efficacy of these tactics has been the whole-hearted support of the corporate media. The networks and the major newspapers have willingly lent their outlets to these efforts.I am afraid that 2008 will be no different.