I’m convinced Mickey Mouse could have run on the democratic ticket and won. It’s political momentum (plus $600M in cold hard cash, leaving aside for the moment where it all came from). I hope public campaign financing will be dead and buried after this fiasco and that no one will ever again believe the two big democrat lies: 1) I will accept public campaign financing, and 2) I will cut your taxes.
So would have anyone else of the Republican also rans. McCain only wanted the nomination to ensure no conservative could be elected. My daughter, conservative, but not that into politics, described McCain's debate performance as pathetic.
These dog and pony shows make little difference to the politically astute, but there are a lot of amateurs who make their voting decision based on the debates.