Well, not being one of the absolutely worst imaginable, doesn’t make you good by default. Lula is not a good candidate - it just so happens that Bolsonaro is incomparably much, much worse. It speaks to the state of the Brazilian political system that, with millions and millions of people that could potentially have been candidates, it’s still these two that turn up as the two “best options” from the political process.

It’s a moot point now, because Lula doesn’t really stand a snowman’s chance in hell of winning this election. But you could argue that he, and PT, threw this one. I don’t think it’s far fetched, anyway, to say that a better candidate could have won this election.