Reagan's time in office is pretty interesting. Some really good things were accomplished, like controlling inflation, but he also had fantastic timing. He got credit for a lot of things that had already started, like deregulation and the upswing in the economy. He also gets all the credit for "winning the Cold War" and the Berlin wall coming down.
His Presidency kind of set the template for how to set the perception that you were good, in that his supply side policies had great results while he was in office but everyone after had to deal with the raging deficit and fallout. Pretty smart, if you think about it. The overwhelming majority of people are only going to see the short-term effects. Everything after will be laid at the feet of whomever is in office at the time.
And, of course, he was the best speaker we've ever had. That's the image that lasts, even though he was basically a shell of that image near the end.
