Although I did not like Ronald Reagan as President, for many of the reasons you have stated, Ed,  he will be missed by his family and millions who felt he was a strong and charismatic leader.  In many ways, I think he represented the beginning of a new form of Republicanism we are now living with, in the embodiment of George W. Bush.

He clearly had symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in the last years of his presidency, and was terrified with the realization of the inroads the memory loss had already begun to produce.  I empathize greatly with his suffering, and his family's hardship during the last decade of his life as he gradually succumbed to this devastating illness. 

It is a blessing for him that he is now at rest, and at peace.

Gene