Economic collapse muted the display of Mccain's electoral strength. All pre-Lehman polls indicated Mccain to be a stronger candidate in swing states than Romney 2012.
Romney's economic positions actually hurt him.
I agree with this post. Without the financial crisis McCain could easily have squeaked a victory on the back of a Palin-inspired culture war victory as Trump managed in 2016.
I still believe that in the end, the best McCain could have done was a 1968 Humphrey or 1976 Ford style narrow loss even without the financial crisis. The fundamentals were still horrible for McCain and much worse than they were for even Humphrey and Ford. Bush's approval ratings were in the 20s and the economy was clearly in recession territory. Unemployment rose from around 4.4% in summer 2007 to 6.2% in late summer 2008. No candidate has ever won with the fundamentals so much against them.
Fundamentals were pretty horrible for Truman in 1948.
One of McCain’s bigger mistakes was leaving Obama’s biggest scandal on the table until the very end. If he had hammered on Reverend Wright from the get-go I think he keeps IN/NC and puts OH into squeaker territory, even in OTL.
