How do you see a CIA operative in Vietnam, former head of the CIA, oil wildcatter, vice-President, and President as "naive"? He's a lot of things, but not naive.
GHWB did more than anyone to dissipate the Reagan legacy through "bipartisanship" with a Democrat majority and taking the blame for the consequences. He gave us Clinton, just like his son pissed away the first potential Republican majority in seventy years and gave us Obama to boot. In the same way, Bush II did so by conciliation to Democrats and "moderates" and took the blame upon Republicans for the consequences of leftist policies in the process.