Democracy ensures a people gets the leader is deserves.
And, before you shoot me, remember I am from Brazil and we just had 8 years of Lula. Yes, we got what we deserved too ;-)
As far as Reagan is concerned, he was not the worse Americans did to themselves, by far. Could have been, but he got incredibly lucky.
Ronald Reagan was probably the last President who wrote long form letters often. There are several collections of his speeches and letters in various places. The writings tell a much different story than the media soundbites.
The speech that probably got him the Presidency was one he did for Barry Goldwater's Presidential campaign. The speech was called "A Time for Choosing" text: http://www.nationalcenter.org/ReaganChoosing1964.html
This was a refined version of the speech he had been giving for a number of years.
I dearly wished the Presidents after him wrote as much (from a historical record), but it seems like we will have to wait for someone with a blogger's mentality to win.