I don’t know how much money McCain could have raised privately. He doesn’t have the corrupt billionaire friends that Obama has. He doesn’t have the Chicago machine. He doesn’t have a ton of foreign donors. He doesn’t sell his honor for profit. And he isn’t very popular among the base.
Which is another way of saying that he was a poor candidate. He could Reach Across the Aisle as often as he liked during the campaign, but he wasn’t going to get any contributions from the Kennedys or the Feingolds.
Sarah inspired the base, but there again, it’s doubtful that ordinary, patriotic Americans could match the funding from Obama’s corrupt machine.
A local talkshow host tried an experiment last week. He sent online contributions to both campaigns, using his own credit card name and number, but from “George W Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave” for Obama and from “Barack Obama” to John McCain. The McCain contribution was refused due to a mismatch, but the Obama contribution went right through.