Reagan was man enough to admit that he had lost and then worked to support his party while adding some conservative ideals to the platform.
Reagan would not allow a democrat in the mold of Hillary or Obama to take the WH.
I'm not going to speak for the man when he cannot speak for himself. I do have trouble believing that the Reagan I admired in the 1980s would have stooped to supporting McCain, a man so far Left he has to look Right to see Ford. This is the same Reagan that said, "I did not leave the Democrat party, it left me."
Yes.
I still say Reagan should’ve run third party. Ford was a disliked President (sound familiar?) who was almost certain to lose the general election anyway. But to quote him, since that’s the vogue thing to do.... “I didn’t leave the party... the party left me.”