McCain lost because of McCain.
No question about that. McCain is too nice of a guy. When it comes to campaigns, he lives in a fantasy world where neither candidate attacks the other. Each candidate is simply to say why he should win, not why the other should lose. This belief of his is the foundation of McCain-Feingold. McCain never wanted to attack Obama; Obama never had such an inhibition.
With that said, those Conservatives who didn't vote for him for his not being a Conservative were foolish. It's better to have a Center-Left President, than to have a Communist President. Sometimes you have to pick between crappy choices. Not voting is a choice and that choice will give us President Obama on January 20.
McCain did not lose because of McCain, he lost because of the pure childishness of those Republicans that could not look beyond their own stupid predigests and realize Obama will ruin America. That is pure ignorance.