McCain and his people had a major asset on their hands... virtually lightning-in-the-bottle, with Sarah. Yet they did mismanage and misdirect it at every opportunity. The biased attacks from the media were one thing, but the other problem was that the McCain camp never really spotlighted/broadcast her strengths and virtues, as exemplified by her governorship. Pretty exasperating, looking back at all this in retrospect.
However, it’s a relief that she’s free from all that now, and is poised to be a major, major player (and woe to any Republican establishment bigwigs who beg to differ). The interest and fascination with her seems to be continuing unabated, well after the election.
The main reason McCain lost was due to his opting for public finance. Obama spent money like water and recruited new voters and brought them to the polls. In Florida alone, he got 500K new votes and in Nevada 200K new votes. Same story in NC, VA,IN. Even, McCain ran a very good campaign and Sarah worked 24/7 in the battleground states, Obambi would still have won narrowly. It is the electioneering techniques that won him. Hopefully, in 2012 all his brothas and sistahs wake up and find out he is half-white after all.