You are right about that, I am still flabberghasted about McCain, I remember when he started rising. I absolutely couldn’t believe it.
Other than they are not the conservative/Republican that I (or seemingly you) want, it seems unfair to always put McCain and Romney in the same bucket. While McCain towed the conservative line on a few issues, he was a total waste on other and a backstabber. I’ve never seen a case where Mitt took glee in dumping all over his own party. He had to make some concessions to be elected in MA and he did it. I think his biggest mistake was not moving back to Utah and running there if he really wanted to go on and be president one day. Mitt may not be the ideal or even 3 choices from my ideal (Cain, Perry, Newt then Mitt) but he’s not anywhere the bad medicine that McCain was/is/will be.