The media WAS all over that one, and the unwashed lefties WERE banging their silly drum outside the White House, but Joe Six-Pack didn't give a rip, (as I've said before, the electorate hates hippies) and in fact, the liberal hysteria over El Salvador and Nicaragua seemed to ADD to Reagan's reputation in the eyes of the electorate.
As long as the media cannot play off the conservative general dissatisfaction of lack of progress during COIN, shrill lefties don't have much traction in the US. No matter how much importance the media chooses to give to it.