I disagree; I think Reagan was very positive for the time he came along but we are glossing over some of the more significant flaws of his presidency and the long term consequences of those flaws, both in terms of government functioning and wider approaches to foreign policy that are coming back to bite us in the ass.
As far as the list of MotherMan, I think Woodrow Wilson should be scratched from any list other than presidents that caused significant long term harm (see massive suspension of civil liberties, segregation, and the gargantuan mess that was the Treaty of Versailles and ultimately American isolationism and various tendrils leading to WWII).
FDR: a man of context, and his social welfare programs were needed at the time and, I would argue, still are. Remember, prior to that era there were no social safety nets AT ALL; hell, there was no protection of labor rights for anyone, no regulation of financial institutions (which led to the Great Depression and the undoing of which is largely to blame for our current mess) and the concept of public works was considered a gross overreach of government. Now argue public works all you like, but without them large parts of our country (the south especially) would never have developed along current lines and there would be a severe lack of infrastructure, without which our wartime industrialization and peacetime success would be impossible. No, FDR's programs are not responsible for our mess -- funny accounting from Reagan through today is responsible and both parties share in that problem.
By the last what I mean is simple: since Reagan our mantra has been lower taxes and less regulation but there has been an increase in services during that time, and a massive explosion in military spending. Yes the military spending served its purpose, but every president and both parties in congress have expanded the government while whittling away the tax base for short term gains. The worst at this was the Bush presidency but everyone has a hand in it, and that short term gain and long term use of debt is a significant problem for which we are going to have some real tough decisions to make. The reason Reagan is part of this is that he left office with an enormous debt; again, it served its purpose but cutting taxes while expanding expenditure is nothing more than asking for long term issues. And every Republican since Reagan has followed his mantra of lower taxes, but their real problem is the lack of a larger goal as a reason to lower taxes.
Now to Reagan's credit his ultimate goal of ending the Cold War was realized but whether he was directly responsible for that is debatable. I think Reagan is a mixed bag as his administration blatantly broke federal laws to achieve their goals in an end run around congress (something that cannot be overlooked and, if the Clinton test is used, should have led to impeachment) and employed some short sighted policies to achieve their long range goals (Afghanistan and the Soviets) that we are paying for today. So does he belong on a list of top Americans? Give it time and see how things shake out. Among the most influential without a doubt, but that influence is too much of a mixed bag for me. Oh yeah, and before some respond that employ too much hyperbole and not enough information, I am independent of Democrats and Republicans and draw my political leanings from both their sources and consistently voted Republican until the most recent Bush.
