The GOP was about as terrible in 2012 as they are this time except for Romney, who was a really good candidate. I even thought that maybe a sensible dude with an R next to his name would be better than Obama because it would mean that Congress would stop deliberately trying to hurt the economy. Romney's incredibly dishonest general election campaign and platform (with logically contradictory promises) lost me.
In 2008, I initially liked Edwards (though I had a bad impression of him at first because of his debate performance against Cheney), but he obviously lost me as it went on. After that, it was kind of like this Democratic primary--I liked Obama personally a bit more, but I had some concerns about his readiness. I was pretty much OK with either one winning and not really invested. By the end, Clinton's dirty campaigning kind of lost me, but it was still not a huge deal. In retrospect, I don't think Clinton would have been nearly as good in office as Obama has been. On the Republican side, Romney and McCain were my two favorites, with McCain being the clear No. 1.
In 2004, I was on the Dean train. Didn't hate Kerry, but wasn't enthusiastic about him.
In 2000, my recollection today is that it was a foregone conclusion in both primaries, and I didn't think too much about it, but I might be remembering that wrong.
