Here's a great article regarding how the Pubs are trying to shape Reagans history and comparing him and the Shrub.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/dubya_youre_no_gipper.php(snip)
Still, Reagan remained “a closet tolerant,” in the words of the journalist Rick Hertzberg, a former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. As governor, he signed a liberal abortion rights law and later opposed a referendum to prevent gays and lesbians from teaching in California’s public schools.
Bush, however, has lived and learned much less. While his admirers present Bush as a man of wisdom and resolve, one wonders where these characteristics came from, since he lacks both learning and life experience. He drifted until the age of 40, then capitalized on his connections to acquire a baseball team, a governorship, the presidency and an air of unearned certitude. He admits that his great obstacle was his own irresponsible behavior as a younger man—hardly the equivalent of Lincoln’s poverty, Roosevelt’s polio or Kennedy’s PT-109.