Mitt Romney's entire campaign. He was gifted a President who had gone from wildly popular to mildly popular. A substantial portion of the population hated the Scary Black Man so much they would have voted for Putin (and said so vocally). The economy was improving but not great and a helpful Congress was doing everything to make sure it stayed not great. He literally could not s***w this up. So.....

1 - Assembles a team of advisors that read like a who's who of bad ideas proven bad. Pretty much the #1 qualification was having screwed up something horribly during the Bush or earlier Administrations.

2 - Let himself get beaten to a pulp over his tax returns. Considering he had run in 2008 he had to know it was coming. Why not release them early, quietly and declare it a non-issue? Instead it became the subject for months and then when he finally released he only released 2 years. One can only conclude that what ever was in those previous years was BAD if not releasing them was a better idea.

3 - Trumpet your business experience right until someone says "But your business did bad things" and then claim that the bad things only happened after you left......knowing full well that you were still getting a paycheck from said bad company. Everyone with a brain knows that leaders have to make decisions others dont like. If you did that, own it. No one likes a flip flopper. which leads to....

4 - His campaign manager publicly stating that everything he said to get the nomination was up for a "reset" in the general election. Way to turn off the people who voted for you already.

5 - Travel overseas to pump up your foreign policy cred. If you are a domestic guy and your number one thing is being a businessman and creating jobs, stay the hell away from anything foreign policy while running against a sitting president. You will get run over. And if you have a bit of a "religion issue" the worst place to go is Israel. The second worst might be Poland because Catholics are so fond of the LDS church. Going to both as the whitest guy on the planet screams "Final Solution!"

6 - As the whitest guy on the planet, stay the hell away from the NAACP. Nothing good comes from that. Especially when you are running against the first black guy as President. Did you really think you were going to change minds?

7 - You are the whitest guy on the planet with a rep for being a hard nosed business man who might have a bit of an issue with being less than compassionate and understanding of what average people go through in their lives. Picking as your VP the only guy whiter than you who has a hardon for gutting the social safety net to the point of thinking letting the poor have cake is too nice is just not a good idea.

8 - Run the worst convention since 68. Florida in hurricane season? Were you TRYING to bring up Katrina? You give a prime spot to Christie and dont think he is going to talk about himself? Clint and an empty chair? And oh that sea of rich white people......

9 - Have your lilly white, never had a hard day of work in her life wife talk about "lean times" and being a housewife.......at the same time her horse is in the Olympics. You were running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Turn the horse into glue!

10 - Go into a debate on foreign policy with a sitting President with your prep being reading Drudge that morning. He was riding a win from the domestic debate and only needed to hold serve and not get embarrassed. Talk a lot about politics ending at the shore line and the unknown challenges that every President meets. Thank the President for representing the US well, hope to do the same and get the hell out of the building while your surrogates attack specific things. Too hard. Took the bait. Went off like a crazy man on something that only existed in the right wing echo chamber.

and 11, because this one goes to 11

11 - Say out loud in plain english what everyone thinks you feel about the "little people." Every political scientist on the planet can confirm that each candidate is really going after the 6-8% of voters who choose on or about election day while the other 92% vote straight party, but that doesnt matter. When you SAY that you dont care about almost half the people you are an idiot. When you SAY that you dont care about them because they are poor you are a f*****g idiot. When you say it at a $50,000 a plate fundraiser you deserve to get k****d on election day.