I didn't support McCain or Romney, but you have to wonder - at least from an economic standpoint - if Romney, especially, was actually the wiser choice in 2012. The broader electorate was typically obsessed with social policy (because it's the only thing black and white enough for most to comprehend) and we only saw fiscal issues addressed vis-a-vis buzz words like 'job creation'.
The Republican primary was, in some ways, more damaging to Romney's image ('vulture capitalism') than the 2008 struggle between Clinton and Obama was to either of those candidates. Somewhere along the line Romney was branded as this greasy executive (and unfortunately, he insisted on dressing/gel'ing the part) instead of what he actually was; a supremely successful corporate strategist and policy wonk. Since when has the American ideal structure shunned money-making? Romney was great at it, and he was legal (perhaps not clean) in his practices. What he did with the Salt Lake City Olympics was nothing short of amazing, but nobody wanted to talk about it. Batman came out and Bain (Bane) became universally associated with evil.
Plus, there was the absolute and utter incompetency of Romney's senior campaign staff, first, for advising him to select Paul Ryan as his VP candidate, and second, for closing him off to the media as much as they did.
I'm really looking forward to watching Netflix's upcoming documentary MITT in a few weeks.