I understand the sentiment but Reagan needed to unify his own party first before beating Carter and taking GHWB as his Veep may have won him the 1980 election rather than watching the GOPe sabotage him the way they later tried to sabotage Trump.
Under Reagan, we had eight sterling years although the first three were just climbing out of the recession that Carter left him. Think Putin is a menace? Try Breznev and Gorbachev. And what could Reagan do after those eight years but to hand the baton to his veep?
I understand your point about how weak GHWB was but understand we might have never had eight years of Reagan if the GOPe was undermining him like they undermine Trump.
They were already working to undermine him. Look at John Anderson’s candidacy. It blew up in their faces and only served to take votes from Carter, not Reagan. RR should’ve chosen Laxalt. This country would’ve been in far better and stronger shape today. The Bushes only served to undo so much of what Reagan did, and paved the way for the Clintoon and Zero horrors, none of which we should’ve had if strong and unapologetic Conservative fighters had been leading the way.