[Gibbon1]

In 2015 Jeb Bush used the massive amounts of cash he had on hand to corner all the Republican campaign operatives. Democrats spent the years between 2008 and 2016 making sure there wasn't going to be a repeat of 2008 where Obama got the nomination instead of Clinton.

You can think of election cycles as a series of games of rock paper scissors. Not uncommon for the winner of the primary to be a guy that can't win in general. Scissors beats paper in the primary. Goes up against rock in the general and loses.