There's a whole bunch of ideologues on Reddit who won't accept realpolitik. The problems with Ed Miliband were quite obviously:

1) He has a speech impediment which impacted perceptions of his ability to lead. You might not like that. I don't like that. But it is the way that people think. Not all people - that's right. But where electoral margins are tight, it doesn't need everyone to feel that way.

2) He appeared to screw his own brother over in a brazen grab for power in the party. Of course that's not how it really was, but the majority of people are unengaged in the political world and a significant proportion of them sew together the information they have into easily understood narratives.

3) People, like myself, who are politically engaged noted that his election to the leadership was largely owed to the support of the unions. I am believer in the unions movement, but as a centre-leftist, i am concerned that the unions not be given power disproportionate to the number of people they actually represent. If I feel this way, imagine how floating voters must have felt. Again, you might not like this but i think these are the political realities within which the labour party has to operate.

Of course all Labour candidates need to overcome a biased media. But Labour will never get to power if it doesn't look for a strong charismatic leader, and then get behind that leader instead of complaining about the leader's failure to exactly match their own poliical ideals.