In the alternate history where the US did not turn tail and run out of Vietnam like a whipped dog, abandoning their former allies in the south to be utterly subsumed by their enemies from the north, how did the 1976 election turn out. Was it still Carter?

This is self contradictory. Failure of national morale in war is actually how wars are normally lost, not somehow something different than normal defeat. And its relevant to the analogy, in that...

> ORM are doing a good (well, at least passable) job of doing what they are intended to do, but are generally hated.

If that's true, its because what they are designed to do isn't what the people hating them need done. It indicates a gap between what is available and what is needed; intent may be interesting, but in the end not all that important.