“While only about half of the voters feel they know very much about Reagan or what he stands for, the Republicans who do have a very positive perception of him.”
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Research has shown that the perceived style of leadership is by far the most important thing to most voters in evaluating officeholders and candidates.
The President has not created any Ford constituency, unique from that of any Republican President. The one exception to this is that he does show unique strength with young voters for a Republican.
Whatever he does should be seen as working at the Presidency and if he goes to Colorado for Christmas, it should be for a minimum amount of time, the family tradition and family get-together aspect emphasized, and it be seen as a working vacation.
This is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but I think it once again points out how very important style of leadership, that is the way he does what he does, is to his perception.