Yes, at the end of eight years of Bush, I doubt that there was single mainstream Republican who could have beaten Obama with any assurance -- even many traditional Republican voters abandoned the Party.
It's as though the Parties decide to swap power every eight years, then just run show candidates to assure that predetermined outcome. This way they aren't competing, just cooperating, so each guy in office gets to further it's own big-government, globalist agenda. It's a lot like like the elections used to be in communist countries.
As gloomy as last years election was I tried to look at it then as positively as I could, that since Republicans would lose, we might as well feed them John McCain so we will never again have to tolerate the MSN liberals telling us who to pick.
John McCain was MSNBC’s hero, and they cast him aside for McCain. I have Obama loving liberals at work, both black, tell me they liked McCain, then told me how mean Bush was to McCain in 2000 primary, a liberal myth irrelevent to them voting for Obama.
I really see little to be optimistic about now, so I just enjoy democrats misery while I can.