The people Reagan gathered around him in his presidency were almost without exception people with gold-standard character and values. I don't know who was out there then, and very possibly the best would have come from an unknown or unlikely place, like George Schultz from Bechtel Corp., for instance. Seems that Reagan was like the 49er's Bill Walsh of the same era - they both knew what they wanted to do and they both recognized talent that others did not. I think Reagan could have found a good guy, my question is why he didn't.
I don’t have the answer to your question but lately I’ve been wondering how history would have been better served if Reagan had chosen more wisely in 1980.
I like the idea of Paul Laxalt, except that I would prefer to imagine (if I’m going to play this Alternate History game) someone younger. Laxalt was 66 in 1988, not too terribly old but still...
What was Dan Quayle doing in 1980? Was he too young? Would he have been a good choice?