My point is this was a dull funeral, by presidential funeral standards. No drama, because he was 93 frickin' years old, and had been out of the spotlight for over 15 years, and no matter how badly the Republicans wanted to invoke the past, it just didn't work, despite the build-up and hype by the right leaning press.

Nancy Reagan, in my view, came off looking like a bad actress--she looked stiff and pathetic in a maudlin way. His son Michael, stiff and rehearsed. The fact that the children didn't stand with Nancy came off as just plain bizarre to me.

There was no bi-partisan unity present for this funeral. Reminded me of Nixon's in that regard. Nobody really seeded to care much,
everyone seemed to be just going through the motions, because after all, he had suffered, the family has suffered, and at 93, people are just relieved to see him go so the suffering can end. It was very anti-climactic after the media hype and build up.

And I found the tone, especially of Hastert, to be shrill and partisan. The Repubs seem to be desperately trying to get all the election year mileage out of this they can, which also leaves a bad taste. And it seemed tackily over-the-top too. Like Bill D said, 21 friggin' airplanes? C'mon. FDR had ONE, and not even a state funeral, and he died in office. Genuine mourning from the people, not this phony shit being peddled like laundry detergent.

Much classier presidential funerals are the precedent. This one just didn't satisfy, IMO. Not because of Reagan's politics, but because of his & Nancy's controlling personalities, the decision to leave the kids out in the cold, a lot of people who came just to say they were there, not of genuine grief, that sort of thing.