Is This View by Obama a Bit Mushy, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, or Just Foolish? Is He Really Saying Reagan Was Preferable To Clinton?

I find his viewpoints concerning the election of Reagan to be abstract, almost academic in nature, rather than based in hard reality. The America of that time was simply fed up with Carter's failures. Reagan, for most of the campaign, was considered a joke. Whatever, it's classic Obama, a guy who loves to hear himself talk.