It will go down in history as a textbook case of how not to run a campaign. As more of his staffers continue to jump ship, it is only a matter of time before we'll hear the announcement that John McCain is dropping out of the race. How did it happen? Consider the long-view. Over the course of a distinguished career in the United States Senate, you work hard to build a reputation as a independent voice. People go so far as to call you a maverick, a guy who is willing to buck the party establishment and stand on principle. In your first run for the presidency, you garner strong support, only to see your reputation dragged through the mud by the Republican contest's eventual victor. But in defeat you are humble. You steel yourself, buck up, even make peace with the new president for the good of the country.

Eight years later you get your chance to run again. But by now something has changed. You have thought long and hard about what went wrong the first time around. You have asked yourself, how could a man like George W. Bush have actually beaten me? One answer seems unavoidable. To win, you must cozy up to the Religious right. So you start saying strange things. You praise religious zealots you once criticized. You give speeches that make you sound like an insurance salesman trying to drum up business. Worse, because he is the incumbent, you believe you must cozy up to the very man who questioned your mental acuity as a result of the torture you endured in Viet Nam. In short, you start pandering, the very activity that seemed so antithetical to your nature all those years ago. Add in support for George Bush's failed war, and George Bush's failed immigration bill, and that's all she wrote. It's over. In short, you seemed to learn all the wrong lessons from the first time around.