Not OP, I wasn’t alive for this. It makes sense though. Economy was failing under Carter, it turned around under Reagan. Personal income and wealth grew solidly and steadily. The hostages were released on the day he was sworn in, but I’m not sure how the public perceived that.

In retrospect though, it doesn’t seem like he was as much of an all-star as perceived. Rolled back as much as 1/3 of tax cuts. Never made good in promise to decrease government spending, actually just shifted it to defense and cutting domestic programs (even kids’ lunches?). Didn’t balance the budget, actually tripled the debt to $2.5 trillion. Reagonomics is also the reason why the rich have so much of the overall wealth too. They gain the most from that type of policy.

I realize this is all hindsight stuff, just talking about my perspective. I’m sure there’s plenty more positives that I didn’t mention.