This entire campaign I have had the feeling McCain does not REALLY want to be POTUS but feels obligated to run.
If that is the case or not, he sure does sabotage his own chances an awful lot.
I think McCain got spoiled by the free ride he was getting on the
Straight Talk Express back in 2000. The Pressies were propping him up because he was the underdog, and he could do almost anything without being called on it. Instead of giving McCain the standard 'Pubbie smear treatment, they spun his clumsiness as a positive. They would just say he "shot from the hip" or was a "maverick".
He is getting no such free ride today, and it shows.