Rank losing campaigns from Best to Worse Since 1972

[Progressive Pessimist]

Rank them by how well they did given the circumstances

In order from best to worst, in 3 tiers (those in the middle tier I think are very similar in quality, and I did my best to rank them).
Top tier:
Ford 1976: he came from 33 points behind to 1 point ahead per Gallup the weekend before the election. He ran an honorable Presidency and campaign, and Carter, in accepting victory, rightly praised Ford for doing much to heal the nation after Watergate.

Kerry 2004: he almost unseated an incumbent President in the first post-9/11 Presidential election. He built coalitions well, did well among young people (a harbinger of what was to come), and turned out his base. He did make a couple of gaffes: In addition to being "for" something before he was against it, he commented in Columbus that "there's nothing like some good ol' Buckeye football." Bush, of course, pounced on this remark the next day in Ann Arbor. It's amazing Kerry came as close as he did.

Gore 2000: after 8 years of Lewisnky-scandal-plagued Clinton, voters were ready for a change; that's what motivated his pick of Lieberman (though as Monday morning quarterbacks we can say he should have picked Shaheen or Graham). I did not expect Gore to win the PV.
***
Middle tier:
Romney 2012: obviously his "binders full of women" and "47%" comments hurt him, but he ran an honorable campaign at a time when many voters simply did not see a reason to change course.

Mondale 1984: perhaps the most doomed campaign in modern history; after the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, and after voting out incumbents in two consecutive elections, voters were not going to have their 5th President in a bit more than a decade. Mondale fought hard, throwing everything at Reagan including the kitchen sink (nothing stuck, because Reagan was the Teflon President). He kept his composure till the very end, and accepted defeat gracefully (if tearfully).

Carter 1980: his bad luck (stagflation, the Iran hostage crisis, his rift with Sen. Edward Kennedy) did not keep him from running a solid campaign. In particular, in one debate, he hit Reagan hard for not answering a question about what he would do about the Iran crisis. 1980 just was not his year.

McGovern 1972: what can one say about an inferior nominee, coming out of a hacked process that saw Edmund Muskie in tears? In addition to building on anti-war, anti-draft sentiment among young people, he had to appeal to farmers, workers, and newly empowered ethnic minorities. He simply couldn't do it all.

Dole 1996: at a time when many still questioned President Bill Clinton's honesty and integrity, Dole ran a rather lackluster campaign.

Bush 1992: seemed clueless, as if his incumbency and experience would carry the day in a year that the book "America: What Went Wrong?" was a best-seller. His "back nine" quip ("Most of my supporters are on the back nine or at their daughter's coming out parties") showed many how out of touch he was. At the end he seemed strident and angry ("Someone who carjacks someone should go to jail until they're so old they can't drive" at a time when a wave of carjackings was sweeping the nation, showed his frustration).

McCain 2008: His pick of Sarah Palin was a terrible choice (Monday morning quarterback here). Maybe Tim Pawlenty would have been better?
***
Bottom Tier:
Dukakis 1988: His technocratic, unfeeling answer to Brit Hume's pointed death penalty question, and of course, his famous tank ride, helped Bush become the first sitting VP to be elected President since 1836 (not that Bush's campaign was much better).

Clinton 2016: We all know the story. Her nomination was inevitable and she almost lost it. Her election was inevitable too, until it wasn't.

She objectively did not almost lose the nomination.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Clinton 2016: We all know the story. Her nomination was inevitable and she almost lost it. Her election was inevitable too, until it wasn't.

Serious question: Why do y'all peddle this borderline lie?

People seem to hate Clinton so much that they will revise history to rationalize it and make her out to look worse at any possible opportunity.