Was the Romney campaign the worst ever?

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This thread is red meat for Democrats. Romney's campaign was better than McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Goldwater, Dole, McCain, Kerry, Wilkie, Landon. I'll go as far as to say he was more electable than Al Gore but had the misfortune of running against an incumbent president. If you look at Romney, he had the ability to lead towards the end, was a good speaker, and criticisms such as his stance on abortion being multiple choice didn't really hurt him. Basically, he was very evenly matched with Obama who held the incumbency advantage. In today's world even astronomical unemployment, unpopular wars, and a raging hatred towards those who earn enough money to pay taxes which fund the president's salary is yet not enough to get rid of a president.

I really hope no one thinks Romney ran a worse campaign than George McGovern.

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I think it is impossible to say whether or not Romney ran a better campaign than McGovern or Goldwater. But that isn’t important either. The point is that Romney ran a really bad campaign. The one issue were he was to the right of the rest of the field in the primary was immigration. His stance on immigration, his personality and his comments about “the 47%” meant that he wasn’t going to do any better among Hispanic voters than McCain did. He might have been able to overcome this problem by doing better with white voters, but a lot of white working class voters didn’t turn out for a man who increasingly seemed like an inept plutocrat. These voters might have disliked Obama, but they didn’t care for Mr “I bet you 10 000 dollars” either.

McCain on the other hand played his hand of bad cards very well. Facing an opponent who walked on water, and an unpopular incumbent from his own party in the White House he had closed in Obama's lead by the early fall. If it weren’t for the financial collapse and the whole Palin debacle, McCain could have won.

McCain may have been able to pull it off without the financial collapse, but I think Palin actually helped him by a few points. If we were to take running mates out and have Obama against McCain, then I think it could've been as bad as 55-44 for Obama in 2008. As for Romney, I don't think his gaffes quite equal Obama's acceptance of defeat with Benghazi, his big bird ad, or saying "at some point you've made enough money." More than anything his incumbency helped him get by.

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I don't think Romney ran the worst campaign. But Goldwater & McGovern never had a shot at winning. 

So I think a better question is: Did Romney run the worst campaign of a candidate who could have won?

To which I say no, Dukakis was worse then Romney.

I don't think there's any way Dukakis could've won. How far back should we look at?

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I don't think Romney ran the worst campaign. But Goldwater & McGovern never had a shot at winning. 

So I think a better question is: Did Romney run the worst campaign of a candidate who could have won?

To which I say no, Dukakis was worse then Romney.

Willie Horton didn't help him and neither did his stance on allowing prisoners to see their families. His background of Massachusetts has never helped any candidates either. He was a complete putts. Remember when he drove around in an army tank?

I don't think there's any way Dukakis could've won. How far back should we look at?

Dukakis is the answer to the worst modern Presidential campaign.  He had a double digit lead in the polls at various points, but his campaign was a trainwreck.  The Dukakis campaign manager had actually never run a political campaign before and it showed.  They refused to respond to attacks by Bush and they made a ton of rookie mistakes. 

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Again I say Romney was very evenly matched with Clinton. Aside from comparisons, he's very centrist, doesn't show any interest in being involved with foreign wars yet he's strong on defense, has experience governing a large state and mind you working with the other party, and is a great speaker. We saw a lot of amazing qualities in him and part of me hopes he isn't finished, but probably is.

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On what issues is Romney "centrist"?

To a lot of moderates he was centrist on social security, Medicare, immigration, taxes, and healthcare. In Massachusetts he was center-left.

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On what issues is Romney "centrist"?

To a lot of moderates he was centrist on social security, Medicare, immigration, taxes, and healthcare. In Massachusetts he was center-left.

He was so centrist on social security he took Paul Ryan as his VP. He was so centrist on immigration he supported self-deportation. Taxes he was a standard republican. Immigration no one knew where he was, because no one really cared.

I've never heard of a centrist choosing another centrist as their running mate so thank you for proving my point.

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Basically, since losing in 2006, the GOP has written the 47 percent crowd off. Dems have had new members of congress especially members like McCaskill, heidikempt and Warren to help assist in holding the Obama multiracial coalition. With Hillary against Christie it will be the same.

None of what you're saying is true. Also, both parties have had many new members of congress. Look at 2010. 47% of this country is able to write off paying taxes because they aren't required to by law. We could talk about that too, but it's off topic. Also, Romney ran a better campaign than George McGovern.

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Basically, since losing in 2006, the GOP has written the 47 percent crowd off. Dems have had new members of congress especially members like McCaskill, heidikempt and Warren to help assist in holding the Obama multiracial coalition. With Hillary against Christie it will be the same.

None of what you're saying is true. Also, both parties have had many new members of congress. Look at 2010. 47% of this country is able to write off paying taxes because they aren't required to by law. We could talk about that too, but it's off topic. Also, Romney ran a better campaign than George McGovern.

The minimum skilled workers, received no raise in the minimum wage, they desperately need which includes women due the GOP opposition in the tax reform act to the payroll tax holiday expiring which raised the social security tax everyone pays.

So should everyone pay taxes? No one is writing off 47% either.

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Considering he didn't exceed expectations it wasn't he was expected to lose but to GOP he was suppose to win.

What are you saying? He wasn't expected to lose?

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Considering he didn't exceed expectations it wasn't he was expected to lose but to GOP he was suppose to win.

What are you saying? He wasn't expected to lose?

2011 was when Obama's approval was below 50 percent. By the fall 2012, just like in the case for dubya, Obama had approvals at 50 in time where most inc win reelection. And plus the economy was below 8 percent unemployment and capture of Bin Laden increased his approvals too.

Yes but 8% unemployment is severely high still. The last week of the campaign is what won Obama re-election. His approvals were right at the border line.

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Considering he didn't exceed expectations it wasn't he was expected to lose but to GOP he was suppose to win.

What are you saying? He wasn't expected to lose?

2011 was when Obama's approval was below 50 percent. By the fall 2012, just like in the case for dubya, Obama had approvals at 50 in time where most inc win reelection. And plus the economy was below 8 percent unemployment and capture of Bin Laden increased his approvals too.

Yes but 8% unemployment is severely high still. The last week of the campaign is what won Obama re-election. His approvals were right at the border line.

BS

Romney never led at any point of the campaign. Obama was always going to win, the question was by how much.

You must not have watched the first debate or seen the polling that followed. Please leave this conversation for the adults.

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Considering he didn't exceed expectations it wasn't he was expected to lose but to GOP he was suppose to win.

What are you saying? He wasn't expected to lose?

2011 was when Obama's approval was below 50 percent. By the fall 2012, just like in the case for dubya, Obama had approvals at 50 in time where most inc win reelection. And plus the economy was below 8 percent unemployment and capture of Bin Laden increased his approvals too.

Yes but 8% unemployment is severely high still. The last week of the campaign is what won Obama re-election. His approvals were right at the border line.

BS

Romney never led at any point of the campaign. Obama was always going to win, the question was by how much.

You must not have watched the first debate or seen the polling that followed. Please leave this conversation for the adults.

He never led when it came to the electoral college, you know the thing that determines who becomes President. Obama had always been ahead, it may not have been a massive lead.....but he always had a 2-3 point advantage over Mitt throughout race.

The only time the President was endanger was the fall of 2011, he was never endanger of losing at all in 2012, even with the first debate debacle.

He was in danger of losing. Michael Barone who never missed a state until the last election had Romney at 315. The only poll that matters is Election Day.

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He was up 10 points in the Summer of 1988.

I try to keep these discussions in the post WW II era. So 1948-2012.

Well, since you mention 1948.......

Mondale and Dukakis were up by a decent amount in the summers of 1984 and 1988.

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When Romney called Gingrich a liberal for endorsing Climate change with then Speaker Pelosi, on couch, that effectively ended his campaign. Allowed Gingrich to define him from the left on Bain Capital, and freed Gingrich from courting conservatives for Romney in general.

Gingrich and George Will are conservatives, no doubt. But both of them look at Dems, as nonpartisan lenses. Just like Will complimented Hillary on finding 28 electors to beat Christie. Referring to the fact, Dems feared Guiliani more so than Chris Christie. And he is no Rudolph Guiliani.

We're all smart enough to take Romney's words with a grain of salt regarding Gingrich. Haven't we all heard such rhetoric in the primaries of both parties? Is Romney really the first? Don't you think this happens somewhat regularly in the primaries?