When will Republicans stop obsessing over Reagan?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'll echo in lighter terms what Yank said. Parties tend to place a good amount of reliance on their last "big" president. For the Democrats, Jackson gave way (down the road) to FDR who gave way to Kennedy. Bill Clinton, while popular, hasn't had the same amount of gravitas in that respect, though that may have to do with him still being alive and probably has to do with his reputation as a moderate. For the Republicans, Lincoln gave way to other popular Republican presidents like Grant, McKinley, Roosevelt, and so on. During the '60's, all we had as a living icon was Eisenhower, who tried a little and in vain to secure his legacy with the party, though Goldwater was able to successfully take that from him and his crew. After Eisenhower, the only Republican president that carries that weight is Reagan. Good economy, two (electoral) landslide victories, had a Republican successor which implies success in his own right, served at a pivotal time in world history, and so on. Had Bush somehow been able to turn the War on Terror into something successful combined with the right amount of PR, a good domestic policy, and larger victories, maybe he'd get something like that, though that's questionable.