You win elections from the base, not the center. Obama appealed to the Democrat base, the Democrat wing of the Democrat party, and the lunatic wing of the Democrat of the Democrat party, Just as Reagan appealed to the Republican party base. McCain tried to appeal to the wobbly Democrat wing of the Democrat pary – mainly by spitting on the Republican party base. McCain followed in the path of Bush by trying to outbid Obama by promising to give away more goodies, but when Obama promised to give away goodies he could credibly sound as if he believed that handing out goodies enriched and ennobled the recipients, whereas McCain sounded like he was handing out goodies after the fashion of a community organizer giving drunks a bottle of whisky to register to vote – if you got your goodies from Obama, it made you noble and superior and proved you deserved them, if you got you goodies from McCain, it made you mooching scum. Why would anyone vote for McCain?