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I don't disagree with your assessment, but would add one other thing that did not help. People were angry, people were scared of Obama and, if you remember, at the townhall in MN the people in the audience were begging McCain to get tough on Obama. Remember the old lady who said she was afraid of him... Now, for all I know she could have been a ringer, but the other man, who stood and begged him to get mad, was on Cavuto and he was very upset that McCain was going so easy on Obama. He said he had a large family and worried for his grandkids under what Obama will do to the nation.

What did McCain tell the audience: Obama is a good man, nothing to worry about. That comment went viral all over the net. I believe it played no small part in so many people staying home on election day.. and those people staying home not only affected the outcome of the Presidential race, it could well be the difference in some of the congressional and senate races we lost.

What I am saying is in this equation, McCain does not get off scott free, he had a very dysfunctional campaign.... and, for a man who wanted to win, you don't let your staff -- on either team -- start leaking like a sieve to the media dissing your Veep candidate.

Thanks for your reply. Your points are excellent, and I couldn’t agree more. In the final analysis, McCain lost because of McCain. The solitary good decision he made was his selection of Palin, a selection I suspect he was dragged into by his team. I remain convinced his first choice was Lieberman.

I will never forget that day b/c although McCain had run such an anemic campaign to that point, I still hoped he was saving his fire for the last part of the campaign where it could not be ignored. Yet, by shutting down every supporter who (correctly) believed that there is LOTS to fear from an Obama presidency, McCain destroyed any reason for people wavering to support him, and any reason for conservatives to be enthusiastic about turning out to vote.

If McCain cannot articulate the severe flaws and weaknesses in Obama as a potential President, then why would people (who were not already closely attuned to the radicalism of Obama) think there was any reason to be concerned about the election of Obama? McCain cut the legs out from under his own campaign, despite Sarah Palin’s efforts to salvage something from the mess.