Picking Sarah may have been brilliant, but was pretty much the only choice - a forced, desperate move to hold onto the conservative base, which abandoned him for similar reasons he had abandoned them - they mistrusted him (with good reason) and he despised them for not accepting him as a leader. Even then, he managed to screw it up, by trying to overshadow her and his campaign staff sabotaged her every chance they had. At times it seemed he was running against her, not Obama. That's a false pride, not a leadership.
McCain thinks he is a "leader" and always wanted to be recognized as a leader. Media always touts him as a "leader" (media did the same for Bob Dole, and for the same reason). But you can't be a leader of the party where most want to go in a different direction (smaller, less-intrusive government) and you can't be and should not be a leader when you don't know where you are going.
Re "suspending" his campaign, it could have been a brilliant move - if he understood what was going on and knew what he wanted to do about it, i.e. if he had any clue and some plan. Instead, it was just a cheap political gimmick, attempt to show "leadership". When he came to the "financial crisis summit," La Corrida in DC, he played not the part of toreador, but of the bull led to be killed.
Hank Paulson in his book On the Brink described McCain the way he was - clueless.
Excerpt from the book: When Mr. McCain Came to Washington - WSJ (public), 2010 February 06
"Inside the White House meeting where Obama called McCain's bluff: 'I could see Obama chuckling'"
When the hearing recessed, I went into [Democratic Massachusetts Rep.] Barney Frank's office and called [White House Chief of Staff] Josh Bolten to tell him in no uncertain terms that I thought it was dangerous for McCain to return. Josh said the White House was equally frustrated. McCain wanted a meeting at the White House, and the president felt he had no choice but to accommodate him. ..... We'd devised TARP to save the financial system. Now it had become all about politics—presidential politics. I wondered what McCain could have been thinking. Calling a meeting like this when we didn't have a deal was playing with dynamite. I told George Bush of my exchange with McCain and I saw a trace of a smile on his lips. He said it was good I had been firm. We were playing for big stakes. He said he sure hoped McCain knew what he was doing. .... By protocol, the president turned to call on the speaker of the House. And when Nancy Pelosi spoke, it was clear the Democrats had done their homework and had planned a skillful response for McCain. ..... Ms. Pelosi said that Obama would represent the Democrats. ..... "The Democrats will deliver the votes," he asserted. Then he sprang the trap that the Democrats had set: "Yesterday, Senator McCain and I issued a joint statement, saying in one voice that this is no time to be playing politics" ..... But, of course, there was no deal yet. ..... It was brilliant political theater that was about to degenerate into farce. Skipping protocol, the president turned to McCain to offer him a chance to respond: "I think it's fair that I give you the chance to speak next." But McCain demurred. "I'll wait my turn," he said. It was an incredible moment, in every sense. This was supposed to be McCain's meeting — he'd called it, not the president, who had simply accommodated the Republican candidate's wishes. Now it looked as if McCain had no plan at all — his idea had been to suspend his campaign and summon us all to this meeting. It was not a strategy, it was a political gambit, and the Democrats had matched it with one of their own. Decorum started to evaporate as the meeting broke into multiple side conversations with people talking over each other. ..... Finally, raising his voice over the din, Obama said loudly, "I'd like to hear what Senator McCain has to say, since we haven't heard from him yet." The room went silent and all eyes shifted to McCain, who sat quietly in his chair, holding a single note card. He glanced at it quickly and proceeded to make a few general points. ..... As he spoke, I could see Obama chuckling. McCain's comments were anticlimactic, to say the least. His return to Washington was impulsive and risky, and I don't think he had a plan in mind. If anything, his gambit only came back to hurt him, as he was pilloried in the press afterward, and in the end, I don't believe his maneuver significantly influenced the TARP legislative process. ..... It got so ridiculous that Vice President Cheney started laughing. Frankly, I'd never seen anything like it before in politics or business — or in my fraternity days at Dartmouth, for that matter. Finally, the president just stood up and said: "Well, I've clearly lost control of this meeting. It's over." Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and I were besieged with questions from all sides. There was no doubt about it—the session wasn't going well. To top that off, my communications adviser Michele Davis passed me a note that said in part, "If you get a question, just say that you know that both Senators McCain and Obama recognize the seriousness of the situation." I turned around and looked at her, stunned. This was crazy.
It was over when McCain won the primary. It was sooo over when he chose to undermine Palin instead of fighting Democrats and Obama.
Mighty good summary- thank you.
The Peter Principle has long ago overtaken and passed McCain by and here we are in obamaland. He's too dumb to retire, so Arizona is going to have to do it for him and for us.