The memorial pomp and circumstance and remembrance of GOP triumphs past surrounding Reagan's death have already given Bush's sagging approval ratings a bounce. But in the end, the president's vision is an irrevocably dark one, with fear at its heart. While Reagan rarely missed an opportunity to invoke America's greatness, Bush rarely misses a chance to scare and divide us.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18913

Reagan spoke of an America whose "heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright . . . She will carry on unafraid, unashamed and unsurpassed. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is."

Bush spoke of an America threatened by "thousands of dangerous killers ... now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs, set to go off without warning," cautioning that "America must not ignore the threat gathering against us ... We cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

"Threat" must have really focus group-tested well, because the word runs like a dark thread through Bush's speeches: "a threat, a real threat"; "an unique and urgent threat"; "a real and dangerous threat"; "a serious and growing threat"; "a threat of unique urgency"; "a grave threat"; "a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined."