I don't think anything changes because Obama still has an army of jobless people (whose money earners are at work) to volunteer, people from Saudi Arabia and Kenya donating money illegally, and of course, First Name Last Name, of Detroit, in his corner.
Atwater's smear tactics were legendary. He definetly could've stoaked tension in places like Florida or North Carolina with a "Reverend Wright" ad.
Not to mention any competent campaign manager would've told McCain to stop going for broke in Pennsylvania, when it wasn't making a difference.
I think the biggest problen was that the nom of Sarah Palin was amazingly short-sighted. It was only done to distract people from Obama's DNC speech, and it worked, but it didn't really pan out for the election.
Yes and no.
All things considered, McCain needed media-attention. His campaign needed an overall "buzz."
Consider the other VP picks.
Romney? Bad blood, integrity issues, etc. (Flip-flops discounted, he was at best, a generic 'conservative' and had the image of a used car salesman.)
T-Paw? Yawn.
Kay-Bay? Not necessarily a bad pick, but some already skeptical of McCain would've been turned off by her being pro-choice.
Lieberman? That would've gotten ugly.
So really, all of these picks are at best, lackluster. McCain didn't need a regular pass, he needed a Hail Mary. Unfortunately, it didn't catch.
