Was the Romney campaign the worst ever?

[Mister Mets]

They can't be the worst ever, because they outperformed so many Republican candidates for statewide office. Plus, there have obviously been worst results in elections: See Barry Goldwater in 1964, and George McGovern in 1972.

The Romney campaign made some unambiguous mistakes, buying ad time in Pennslyvania late at inflated prices, and expecting to win the election even when the polls suggested Obama would win.

But, a loss was probably expected. Obama was a charismatic incumbent. In the last 100+ years, there's only been one time when a party got kicked out of the White House after just one term. Obama had a major foreign policy accomplishment, with the death of Osama Bin Laden, as well as a recent major domestic accomplishment, with his handling of Hurricane Sandy. And the economy was improving. With all that, Romney kept the election within four points.

Incidentally, I've come to the conclusion that Kerry was an underrated candidate due to how close he kept an election against an incumbent in the middle of a war, that was considered at the time to be going successfully.