Reagan was a long time ago

In the 2008 election, we heard a lot from Republicans about Reagan. But Reagan was first elected 28 years ago. That's a long time. To put it in perspective: when Reagan was first elected in 1980, the President that had been elected 28 years prior was Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Thus, the Republicans running as the party of Reagan in 2008 is roughly equivalent to if they ran as the party of Eisenhower in 1980. Which is all a way of saying that these guys are kind of living in the past at this point.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Democrats sold themselves as the party of FDR well up into the Reagan years, so maybe this sort of thing is normal.