Granted, I don't know how obsessive the coverage was - I was out of contact with the world last week; no email, no phone, no web, no tv, nothing. But I don't begrudge the man his coverage, or the media its obsession; whether I agreed with his policies or not, he was one of the most important presidents of the century, which made him (in many ways) one of the most important *men* of the century.
I know that the coverage was all choreographed years ago, and that many of the media personalities are simply reading off of a script written for them by their predecessors. That's ok. :)
On a personal note - Reagan was the first president that I had any conscious experience of. So his passing is a bit strange for me; it's the most visceral reminder i've had of my own aging ... and, in a strange way, it closes off an era for me. He's not the first president in my lifetime to have died - that was Nixon - but he's the first one that i've *known* in any way, and I found myself more affected by his passing than I had expected.
I was far more sad about Ray Charles dying. The Blues Brothers was on last weekend, and I just love the number he does on electric piano. Tom Brokaw actually said tonight that Ray Charles had the same impact on music that Ronald Reagan did on politics, which I found unbelievably egregious. It's weird to hear all the Reagan worship going on right now, completely out of the blue. I'd much rather worship a blind piano-playing soul musician than a politician any day.