That's correct. When you're outspent 8 to 1, as McCain was, it's not a difference in ideas - it's a difference in canvassers, get out the vote workers, advertisements, and so on. I think a lot of McCain's ideas were not conservative enough. But they were definitely better than Obama's. The problem is that he had no money with which to make his case.
8 to 1 is why McCain lost. You can go on and on about the power of good ideas. But the fact is - you don't win unless your ideas get traction. That's where TV ads and paid staff come in - and they don't work for free. If the power of conservative ideas was self-evident, the Democratic party would have been extinct a long time ago, and Communism would have aborted before it ever took hold in a single country. Show me a guy who gets outspent 8 to 1 and I'll show you a loser. Nobody wants to hear it - not the media, who think the Messiah's message sold itself or conservatives, who think McCain's message was horrible because they disagree with it - but I'll say it anyway - 8 to 1.
Money was not the entire problem - it was gross incompetence. It doesn’t take money to have a decent website and the backend programming to provide good phone bank and walking lists and a ‘contact us’ form. The Republicans are just a mess - and I’ve been one since birth (70 years).
See my post #426 above - I spent hours on the phone trying to find what we could do to volunteer - with promised call backs that never happened.