GHW was "Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China", then CIA Director, then VP. Pretty well connected family. He was Reagan's biggest mistake.
Second biggest; if he'd carried through with his plan to abolish the Department of Education the field would be vastly different with respect to the youth of the country — one of Ron Paul's biggest achievements, IMO, is sparking interest in small, limited government in many college-age citizens… it's a little late, but better than never.
In more ways than one:
“Hinckley’s father was a financial supporter of George H.W. Bush’s 1980 presidential primary campaign, although the families were not “friends”, where Bush was Reagan’s closest rival for the Republican nomination prior to becoming his vice president. Hinckley’s older brother, Scott, had a dinner date scheduled at the home of Neil Bush the day after the Reagan assassination attempt.[22][23] Neil’s wife, Sharon, indicated in a newspaper interview the day after the shooting that Scott was coming to their house as a date of a girlfriend of hers, and that she didn’t know “the brother [John]” but understood “that he was the renegade brother in the family.” Sharon described the Hinckleys as “a very nice family” and that they had “given a lot of money to the Bush campaign.”[24] This also led to various conspiracy theorists speculating that the Bush family had something to do with the assassination attempt.[25]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley,_Jr.#Bush.E2.80.93Hinckley_family_connection
GHWB could be Reagan’s biggest mistake, but I always though Sandra Day O’Connor, another of those illustrious Arizonans, netted that “honor”.