I think a lot of blame should go to the media, the Republican Party, and McCain himself.
A study shown that McCain got far more media coverage than any other candidate during the primaries.
The Republicans gave in and gave the nomination to a guy who wanted to complete a dream of becoming one of America's greatest war-heroes turned presidents. His nomination was a sympathy nomination, since he had lost a bitter primary to Bush in 2000.
In turn, he pussyfooted around a lot of issues concerning Obama and didn't get into them until shortly before the election, which made him look desperate. It showed the last gasps of a drowning campaign.
In the end, McCain is far from a true conservative. Maybe Obama winning in such a convincing fashion will wake up the Republicans into thinking that we must get back to our conservative roots. No more of this RINO (Republican in name only) business, and no more of this moderate garbage. It's time we move back to giving the power to the states, reducing the responsibilities of the government.
I'm actually excited not about Obama winning the presidency, but about the changes that MUST be made within the Republican Party in order to achieve success.
I believe Obama will be a terrible president, thus guaranteeing a Republican president in four years. This next candidate CANNOT be someone chosen to attract moderate/undecideds (McCain) and they cannot be someone chosen to attract only female/Clinton voters (Palin).
Again, I'm excited to see the party revert back to what it initially stood for - conservative values.
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union
or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as
monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be
tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson
1st Inaugural, 1801.
It's time to change the form of the Republican Party itself.