This is a particularly pernicious meme for Republicans because it feeds into their delusional belief that A) President Obama has been an ineffectual chief executive who was an eminently beatable incumbent; and B) If the GOP could only nominate the right candidate the White House would be theirs for the taking.
I can't find the original National Review piece by Ramesh Ponnuru, but here's the gist of it (my emphasis):
Romney was not a drag on the Republican party. The Republican party was a drag on him. Aaron Blake pointed out in the Washington Post that Romney ran ahead of most of the Republican Senate candidates: He did better than Connie Mack in Florida, George Allen in Virginia, Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Jeff Flake in Arizona, Pete Hoekstra in Michigan, Deb Fischer in Nebraska, Rick Berg in North Dakota, Josh Mandel in Ohio, and of course Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. In some cases Romney did a lot better. (He also did slightly better than Ted Cruz in Texas, a race Blake for some reason ignored.)
Now ask yourself: Who could have done better against Obama in 2012? Newt Gingrich? Rick Santorum? Ron Paul?
Please.
The truth is that President Obama has done a really good job in the face of unconscionable Republican opposition. No one could have beaten him in 2012.
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