“Your ignoring the fact that McCain is not a serious candidate. “
??? You are ignoring the fact that he won. He is ipso facto a serious candidate. whether he will fall on his face like Dole in 1996 or be more hammer-and-tong defeat-the-lib like GHWBush was in 1988, I do not know. Dont assume he wont try though.
He won because liberals and independents crossed over to vote for him. Then you had Huckster splitting the evanglicals, which left the real mainstream Republicans like Thompson out to dry.
Once Thompson entered the race, McCain should have had the good sense to withdraw and endorse him, since Thompson endorsed McCain in 2000. Some friend, eh?