Matt Y. hits on something I’ve been thinking about a lot in recent days:

McCain barely even tried to take advantage of the fact that, when the race began, he wasn’t closely identified with the rotten GOP brand. Of course when he decided he wanted to be president, the first thing to do was to start running to the right in order to win the primary. That’s what you do. And that’s what he did. And it worked — barely — he won, albeit in a way that relied on a lot of independent and crossover votes. Then having won the primary, you want to tack a bit to the center. That’s how the game is played. And it’s especially how the game is played when your party’s image is terrible.

But McCain didn’t do it.

Consider what might have happened if he had.

Consider what might have happened had he picked someone like Tom Ridge - or Joe Lieberman - as his running mate. It would have been a specific choice to run as a centrist, as the moderate that everyone knows McCain is/was. And to whatever extent the GOP/the base would have been cheesed off by this - most, I suspect, would have still voted for him (reasoning that the alternative was just worse).

But, a hard McCain tack to the center might have peeled off a lot of Obama’s moderate support. It certainly would have kept on board the pundits - the Peggy Noonans and David Brooks - who wound up jumping ship. The likes of Rush may say “good riddance” to those leaping overboard, but if the GOP is to be a true national party with a broad appeal - it needs moderates.

Instead, McCain ran right - perhaps reasoning that he needed the enthusiasm of the base to win. And maybe he thought his “maverick” credentials would ensure the moderates would stay on board.

Not saying McCain would have won if he ran to the center - but he had a choice to make, and he made it. I do think that choice contributed greatly to his loss; again, the country itself is nowhere near as conservative as the conservative base. The country sees a lot of them as extremists - and the outbursts at the rallies certainly reinforced that belief.