McCain was disastrous for McCain. The main problem is McCain continues to inflict his disastrous self on the rest of us.
That's an f'n lie. As I remember, Sarah breathed life into a boring ticket, propelled them to a lead in the polls despite attacks on Palin from within and without, from left and right.
Things were close, iirc, going into the financial meltdown, at which point McCain became impotent. He later acknowledged pulling punches so he wouldn't be remembered as a racist republican, saying nasty things about America's first black president.
Schmidt is totally inside the beltway, an MSNBC staple. He and his former boss can go to hell.