Oh, c’mon. Surely Sen. Dole ran a worse campaign than McCain. I can hardly remember him running at all...
Don't confuse bad with boring. Bob Dole ran a boring campaign because Bob Dole was a boring candidate. But, Dole didn't really make any major mistakes - I can't really think of any minor mistakes he made. It was the GOP who made the mistake in nominating him in the first place. Dole enjoyed the same circumstance that McCain did. It's called "Weak Conservative Primary Challenger-itis".
McCain not only ran a campaign with a touch of boredom, he ran a tactically and strategically flawed campaign, almost from beginning to end.
His primary campaign was abysmal, and only succeeded because of the oddest confluence of circumstances that no one could have predicted; namely the media being so involved in propping him up, while completely ignoring or marginalizing more conservative candidates like Hunter or Thompson.
His general election campaign was at best amateurish, and at worst intentionally below par. It was mistake after mistake, and yet with just a few weeks to go, he was a threat. Well, someone (perhaps McCain himself) couldn't have that. So, he pulls the absolutely idiotic stunt of suspending his campaign. Oy vey! That was the end. That was the day he lost.