John McCain was neither a martyr nor a maverick

And the Journal said "the biggest challenge of all was the financial crisis, which tanked the economy, (and) was blamed on the Republicans".

First of all, the absence of personal responsibility in these articles does not go unnoticed. None points out that McCain, the self-portrayed maverick of market deregulation, failed to respond to these accusations when deregulation was pegged as the main reason for the "greed and corruption" on Wall Street that contributed to the collapse.

Second, to claim martyrdom is to blame circumstance. While it was unfortunate that McCain's weakest policy position came out as the public's greatest concern, even he argued in his "I've been tested" speeches that it's the job of a good leader to respond appropriately to such challenges.

Third, and probably the worst campaign decision after his VP selection, McCain openly admitted to changing the focus of the race away from the economy and towards Obama's personal associations, his patriotism, his alleged socialism, Wright and Ayers and Khalidi, oh my!

By so doing, he left unchallenged his oft-quoted line, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should". And he never quelled fears about his economic wisdom as Obama continually referenced McCain's remark just before the market crashed that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong".

Even if we wanted to humour the GOP sympathisers who claim he was quoted out of context - that McCain actually was referencing the American workforce - I would turn to the 240,000 workers who lost their jobs in October, or the 284,000 others who were put out of work in September, or the 1.2 million who are unemployed just this year, according to the Labor Department, and ask them if the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

The fact that the economy emerged as the No.1 issue for voters may not have been ideal for the man whose greatest strength was foreign policy, but McCain botched his chances to right that ship by proving to the American people that he was more than just another self-entitled Washington insider who had no worries of making the mortgages on any of his seven homes.

Leaders lead, losers bleat

A leader demonstrates his strengths. McCain did not. Instead, he played the drama queen in halting his campaign only to prove useless in House negotiations over the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package. He wailed and flailed in response to the "gotcha" media coverage of his ill-tuned vice presidential candidate. And he employed a Swift Boat-esque attack strategy after originally calling for a "respectful campaign" devoid of the "Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents (that) distract from the big differences between John McCain's vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats'." (Taken from a March 11 campaign memo.)

The missteps were many, but the economy aside, we saw stark differences between the two candidates in their abilities to react to minor and major crises.

Steady versus frantic

Whereas Senator Barack Obama maintained consistency and cool-handedness in issuing his rebuttals and explanations to what could have been detrimental controversies throughout the race, McCain came off in nearly every speech, town hall meeting and presidential debate as desperate, bitter and arrogantly confident.

Whereas Obama gave an historical speech on racial stigmas following the media frenzy over Reverend Jeremiah Wright, McCain mocked the Democratic nominee for being a skilled orator and celebrity politician.

Whereas Obama picked a vice presidential candidate who would assist him in governing the nation, McCain chose a Joe Six-pack hockey mom who, it was thought, would rally the socially conservative masses but who proved incapable of answering even the simplest of media inquiries - including but definitely not limited to the question: What newspapers and magazines do you read? Sarah Palin's answer: "All of 'em. Any of 'em that have been in front of me over all these years."