2008 and 2010 was when it was out in the open. The evidence could no longer be denied.
in 2008, McCain ran a campaign where he was consistently behind Obama with the exception being the week or two he announced that Sarah Palin was his VP pick. He never took the campaign seriously and even said things like, “Barack Obama is a nice man. Don’t call him ‘Hussein’. You can trust him..” Worse, he suspended his campaign to lobby in the Senate to plunge our nation further into debt. I knew then it was all over but the crying.
In 2010, JD Hayworth put his money where his mouth was and went up against McCain. McCain came out swinging and you’d think someone had shot his dog. He pulled out the stops and ran attack ads and called in chips with Sarah Palin. Even said he’d “Build the damn fence, if that’s what they really wanted.” I kept asking myself, “Where was THIS McCain in 2008???”
You are talking about two very different types of campaigns, primary and general elections, and equating them.
The things that motivate conservatives to vote for a candidate, do not work on moderate and liberal voters. Attacking Obama would have motivated conservatives to vote for McCain, but would also motivate liberals to vote for Obama, and turn off moderate voters. Candidates need over 50% of the vote to win. A winning Republican tries to get most of the conservative vote and most of the moderate vote, while suppressing the liberal vote...that is why smart politicians use a proxy to attack their opponent in a general election.
In a primary, both candidates are going after the same conservative voters...so pointing out that JD was a hypocritical, big government spending, entitlement pushing infomercial salesman, that couldn't win reelection in his tiny little congressional district, didn't hurt McCain with conservative voters.
So many of the AZ Republican primary voters are just stuck on McPain. As the late Ann Richards would say if she could, “they cain’t he’p it.”