Well, GHWB wasn’t the best Republican around, by a long shot. Even if he was Ronald Reagan’s veep. (Donald Trump has done better by choosing Mike Pence.)
But we have long had the problem of the Rockefeller Republican, of which GHWB was one, and his son eventually showed signs of being, too. The Democrats are too wild for the Rockefeller Republican, who wants at least the patina of decency.
And really, if something had to show that Ronald Reagan still had clay feet, it was GHWB. Donald Trump is a better iteration here. Perhaps the good Lord had raised Ronald Reagan up as a trial flag, to see what America would do. Granted, Reagan would have had a hard time “unveeping” GHWB, even if Reagan had grown wiser over the years. He was stuck with that running mate, who became the Presidential candidate apparent. Here’s where we could have used a Donald Trump, or maybe even a Mitt Romney at that point (he wasn’t as bad yet) to step up after Clinton’s first term. But the good Lord knew that if we sowed the wind, we would reap the whirlwind. What we needed to do was to learn that too.