If McCain loses, it will be by a manageable margin, like Dole's in 1996. The party actually did okay in the congressional elections that year. Huckabee's loss would be overwhelming and realigning. The GOP might even lose Mountain West states like Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
I think your whisteling past the graveyard. McCain will loose in a land slide and won’t even take his home state against Obama. Obama is the democratic Reagan. He is an empty slate that a tired, dispirited group of people can hang there hopes on!!
The vast political middle want to see problems solved, many don’t care how. McCain will not bring any change nor will Hillary, for both of them it’s obviously about power.