@Mandomike, you seem to be ignoring the perspective thing here. That is, Reagan was able to inspire confidence in “folks who think like you”, and Obama seems to be inspiring confidence, hope, or some alloy of those things in “folks who are not so much like you”. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with the way you think, but… if you think that way, then Reagan appeals to you and gives you hope. That’s simple enough, right?
So Obama falls flat for you (and me), and Reagan falls flat for others (and me). But they both have / had great effectiveness at appealing to their core constituencies, with a spillover toward the middle that’s required to win elections and push programs.
Part of the polarizing that I see these days comes from the fact that Democrats seem to feel that they don’t even have to bother with “the middle”, since they feel like they own it—and that’s hard to disagree with nowadays. Republicans, though… I don’t know… they seem either too proud, too insular, or too… incapable? ... of explaining their core principles in a way that makes sense to uncommitted voters or sways anyone who isn’t already “one of them”. We’re living in the flip side of the 80s, I think.
I’ll admit that 30 years ago Reagan did appeal to me for a while, at least with the things he said. But I got lost in the gulf between speech and action, and no national politician has much appealed to me since then.