People instinctively understood that even more than 15 years after Reagan left the Oval Office and even with a lightweight currently in that office that Reagan was something special, someone who pulled America away from the edge of a cliff.
John McCain was not fit to shine his shoes.
My wife and daughter spent 3 hours in line waiting to view Reagan. As luck would have it, Ann Coulter was in line just ahead of them. They didn’t get to view the casket until the wee hours of the morning.
Every few mo the I’ll look at videos of various parts of the Reagan funeral proceedings on YouTube . Still moves me to this day, escpecially the end of the services and departure from National Cathedral with the choir singing “Mansions of the Lord.”
What I remember in contrast, is how the Kennedy family tried to mimic the Reagan experience when Ted Kennedy died. They had the funeral procession move slowly down the road towards Arlington cemetery so the adoring crowds could give one last good-bye (the "crowds" being people waiting for the light to change at each intersection).
They took so long getting to the cemetery that it was dark when the final ceremony took place. Nobody thought to bring lights for the cameras, so all you saw on TV was a black screen and distant voices. At one point, I heard a child cry "I can't see anything!"
The whole thing was laughably pale in comparison.
-PJ