'Reagan, Terror & Bush.'

The death of President Reagan did several favors for the Bush administration, but once again, they seemed too inept to understand. First, for one of the few times in the last year, the well-deserved microscope of criticism was off of Mr. Bush. Second, the Bush team had a built-in opportunity to recognize the Reagan presidency (of whom Mr. Bush is a non-deserving heir). But inexplicably the Bush team at first said that Mr. Bush, who was in Europe trying to make up with foreign leaders, would not be making a public statement about President Reagan. This is typical of the lack of social, ethical, and leadership skills demonstrated all too frequently for the last three years by the White House. Only after fumbling around and seeing the dismay of many, including his own party supporters, did Mr. Bush change his mind about saying something in public praising the former president.

Iddybud says it very well:

I think Bush is a super-dumbed-down version of a Reagan-wannabe (without Reagan's natural gift of humor). Bush tries to imitate and emulate Reagan's historical successes. We need a clear-eyed realist who is his own man. (A man---or woman---who doesn't have to read from cue-cards and sound like a second-grader when he does). I'm sick of being faked out by cheap (and often seemingly-learning-disabled) imitations.

I believe that a good portion of the reason so many Americans have a visceral dislike for Bush is primarily due to the fact that they suspect they are far more intelligent than he is. It's frustrating when you don't share a man's ideology and you observe that he can barely squeeze three or four properly-pronounced words into one flowing sentence. Another reason for the Bush-disconnect is that so many Americans do not trust that Bush's motives are genuine. He's been caught lying to Americans too many times.

You didn't see the same distaste for Reagan, even though his ideology was oppositional to many.