Who should have easily won but ended up blowing it?

[Mr. Smith]

Dukakis overall.

Gore of these.

At least Hillary had good reason to aim for a popular vote margin, I mean think about exactly what the narrative would've been if let's say:

A. Arizona flips and Florida holds, but the Midwest is a blowout for Trump.

or

B. Texas doesn't swing so harshly and Hillary holds The Rust Belt.

Can you imagine the implications of a post-Tea Party Era Republican taking the popular vote but not the EC? The truth is, Hillary needed to win on all counts decisively. What's worse, Brexit won that year, and the far-right was generally on the rise.

And Romney was running against the bin Laden catcher and bailouter, but he really could've won that despite the odds. Kerry was pretty much always doomed, and it's remarkable he got it to Ohio at all.

Gore has none of those excuses at all.