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“Dumb enough to elect him — twice.”

Don’t blame the voter, blame the candidates.

Obama faced two incredibly weak Republican candidates. Neither ran an aggressive campaign. Neither articulated a compelling vision for the country. Both made fatal errors in campaigning. Neither energized the Republican voter base, much less independents.

McCain had the handicap of millions of voters who voted for Obama in order to be part of history — electing the first black president. This was an obstacle but McCain’s campaign had two self inflicted wounds. The first was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate and then allowing his campaign staff to collude with the media in destroying her on the campaign trail. He showed poor leadership in very obviously refusing to stand with his running mate. The second self inflicted wound was suspending his campaign when the financial crisis hit and running back to Washington to help save the country. There he, as one of 100 Senators, demonstrated he had no power and no seat at the table with the real power brokers. He looked like a buffoon instead of a leader. Obama, in contrast portrayed an image of a cool steady hand. McCain self destructed.

Romney, a GOP liberal, failed to differentiate himself from Obama. He began his campaign by publicly walking away from the populist tea party movement which had delivered a House majority to the GOP in 2010. Obamacare was unpopular with the majority of voters but Romney wouldn’t strongly support repeal due to his Romneycare in Massachusetts being the model for O’care. He also would not support strong enforcement of the southern border. Finally in one of the debates when Obama and the debate moderator teamed up in an obviously contrived surprise attack, Romney crumbled on the air instead of hitting back hard. He demonstrated he is not a strong leader.

Ultimately McCain and Romney refused to attack Obama, probably fearing the media would portray them as racists. They pulled their punches and made some critical mistakes. They failed to provide a vision for America better than Obama’s. It was their job to persuade voters and they failed.

Remember the dumb voters turned out for Reagan and Trump. Reagan and Trump both articulated strong, appealing alternative visions for the country and campaigned aggressively. What vision and program did McCain and Romney offer. “I’m not Obama and I promise I’ll work hard” is not a compelling message.