Aside: people are forgetting Nixon’s ‘62 CA Gubernatorial loss that triggered his “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” hissy fit.
Win/Loss elective office records tend to be poor indicators of good leaders. Look at how many elections Lincoln lost, for instance.
The difference is that Nixon was a real politician with a record of winning, not that he lost two races during his long career.
He has already been a Congressman, a Senator, and a vice-President when he lost that Governor’s race.
Romney couldn’t even win reelection to his one elective victory.