Coloradomtnman
Rational and proud of it.
IMO John McCain lost this election because of his failure to send a consistant message that resonated with the American people. His message constantly changed with the prevailing winds and it appeared to the public at times as if his campaign was in disarray. Taking into account that his campaign on both a strategic and tactical level was managed terribly as can be seen in the constant leaks, inability to stay on message and address issues. Further when the crisis in the market hit, the McCain campaign from a tactical standpoint looked totally unprepared and by suspending the campaign it appeared more like a stunt especially when John McCain went to Washington and supported the bailout. IMHO the McCain campaign missed a golden opportunity to seperate himself from Barack Obama by supporting the bailout and had he gone to Washington and not supported the bailout he would have been able to speak to the 65% of the public that did not support it. The infighting between the many factions working on his campaign from the Romney people to the Huckabee and McCain staff simply did not mesh well. IMO the motives of some members of this staff as it applies to Sarah Palin were less than honorable and many of them were looking forward to future jobs with respective candidates. In conclusion the McCain campign lost because of their lack of a consistant message, poorly managed campaign, and bad strategic thinking, not to mention they were completely outclassed in funding and message in this election by the Obama campaign IMO.
I agree and would add that he had an uphill battle because many identified him with Bush, who is very unpopular, and the party he represented with the GOP's failures while in power for the last 8 years. So many people were tired of the divisive politics which McCain's campaign employed and the negative campaigning that the popularity of Obama's message, symbolism, and policies was like a knee jerk reaction. And I think there is even more to add, but I won't spend more time going into all of the myriad contributing factors.