A dog could have beat Obama in ‘12. Unfortunately, the GOPe nominated someone worse than a dog.
“The party lost 26 seats in Ronald Reagan’s first midterm, but a mere 5 seats in his second midterm for a net loss of 31 seats.”
That second election saw the Gipper lose the senate, and Bork was defeated and Iran-Contra hearings crippled the remainder of the Reagan presidency. This analysis is way too simplistic.