John McCain was neither a martyr nor a maverick

Whereas Obama added former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Warren Buffett to his campaign cabinet of economic consultants, McCain tapped an unlicensed plumber out of Ohio to join him on the campaign trail.

And whereas Obama maintained consistency in his message of change, his policy positions and the criticisms against his opponent, McCain changed his message weekly, if not daily.

From the $150,000 VP shopping spree to the 90 per cent pro-Bush voting record, McCain constantly came up short in adequately countering or even effectively redirecting doubts about his leadership style, his ability to organise a campaign, general intuition and his overall decision-making.

These differences do not constitute martyrdom. They constitute poor judgment.

Admitting personal error

In an effort to embrace the party he so often opposed, McCain changed his tune on torture, supported Bush's policies almost 100 per cent of the time in the two years running up to the election, reversed his stance on off-shore drilling and embraced a position on taxes that he'd earlier opposed, vehemently.

We watched week after week as McCain moved farther and farther to the right, attempting to appeal to the GOP base that even during the nomination was sceptical of the temper-tantrum-prone Maverick. He moved from a non-partisan critic of both parties to a GOP panderer, but try as he did, McCain never quite achieved the backwoods country boy image that proved so successful for Bush. He employed the Rove-ian attack philosophy, but lacked in the Old West image that awarded our now lame duck president a second term.

Wanting to mirror the 2004 Bush strategy, McCain tapped an Alaskan moose hunter to fill the void. But the folksy, ah-shucks sort of "charm" that helped Bush deflect questions and win-over the crowd four years ago served only to intensify the political divide even for those within the GOP.

Palin did "energise the conservative base", but the results from Election Day proved that Americans want more out of a campaign than the partisan us-versus-them culture war philosophy. And they want more from a president who claimed eight years ago that he would reach across the aisle and strive for more than the 50 per cent plus one majority needed to pass legislation.

Bush won legitimately in 2004, and McCain lost legitimately in 2008. It would do the GOP good to ditch the folksy appeal and demagogic style come 2012, and return to the conservative philosophy that made William F. Buckley a national hero: fiscal conservatism and social libertarianism.

Show the American people what it means to move politics aside and put "Country First".