I think his biggest problem was in what he did when he got to Washington. His strategy was to peel off some Republicans in passing massive bits of legislation, rather than splitting legislation to allow some opportunities for bipartisan votes. You can make an argument that if that happened, unpopular elements of legislation like the Affordable Care Act would never be passed, although that would be part of his unpopularity.
Obviously you lived in an alternate reality since January 2009 where McConnell and Bhoener were possessed by the spirits of Everett Dirksen and Bob Michel.
Yeah, because 2009-2011 had such a strong GOP majority!