Washington (CNN) -- When the race is done, the balloons have wilted, and the confetti has been swept up, Campaign 2012 may be marked more by its failures than its triumphs. But here's the starkest failure in these final days before the vote: Neither candidate has made a convincing enough argument for his presidency to break free of the margin of error in the polls. No matter who is elected, close to as many Americans will have voted against him as for him. Sure, Barack Obama has generally stayed a point or two ahead of his rival in most battlegrounds, but despite his mighty pushes and the advantage of the bully pulpit he has rarely done any better. And Mitt Romney, while he has managed to relentlessly nip at the president's heels like a dog chasing a car (as opposed to one riding on top), he has never been able to decisively bridge the gap from "also ran" to "front runner."
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ANALYSIS: Both Romney and Obama have been unable to break through to unite voters
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Romney has been trying to recover from being pulled from the right early in the campaign
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Obama has seemed like an unwilling participant in his own re-election
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