There are four main reasons Obama is now the president-elect. Of these reasons, John McCain could only control one of them.
1. Bush fatigue. People are mad at George W. Bush. They wanted change. Obama did a good job tying Bush to McCain (even though McCain was almost the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004). For his part, Bush did nothing to work on his image. Bill Clinton survived impeachment because he spent 6 years working on being liked. If Bush worked half as hard as Clinton at being liked, he'd be in the mid-40s and a non-factor in the election.
2. Obama ran center-right. Obama did a great job running away from his leftist record. He stood for tax cuts, gun rights, and other center-right positions. Which Obama will show up on January 20? Will it be the hard left partisan senator or the center right candidate?
3. McCain was too nice. McCain ran the cleanest, nicest campaign by any presidential contender in a generation. He should have hammered Obama with taxes and Reverend Wright every night throughout the summer. He didn't.
4. The economic meltdown. Before the meltdown, McCain was winning and beginning to pull away. Then came the meltdown. Obama went into witness protection while McCain pushed the rescue package. Ironically, Obama opposed fixing the very thing that caused the meltdown back in 2005 and benefited from the meltdown he helped cause.
If the meltdown does not happen, McCain wins even with the other deficiencies. However, the market crashed and McCain's chances crashed with them. He was like Charlie Brown running to kick the football. The market was Lucy pulling the football away at the last minute...
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