I don't know that it's fair to say that Reagan wanted to nominate Schweiker; I think he felt that he had to nominate someone like him in order to have a shot at the nomination in '76. The GOP was fairly liberal in those days, and was largely controlled by the Northeast types.
It is fair to say that Reagan wanted to pick the liberal Schwieker.
To say he had a reason to pick him, a political reason, doesn’t change it. He could have picked someone more center right but not as right as himself. There was no imperative there, just political calculation it would appear.
And I loved Reagan...proudly voted for him twice and yet...my original statement to AmericaninTokyo was that even Reagan himself sometimes acted contrary to Reagan.