Can McCain defeat Obama?

[Smid]

For the Republican Party to nominate a moderate, rather than a conservative, as its presidential nominee, smacks of insincerity. Most Republicans, after all, are not moderates

Dave

It's not insincerity to nominate a moderate - it is just a further hurdle for McCain to be nominated. It's not the party trying to con the public - McCain is his own person and would make his own decisions irrespective of the ideological position of the majority of party members. If more conservative members of the Republican Party thought they could exert influence over an elected moderate Republican President, then "Shares Our Values" wouldn't be as important a factor in vote casting in the primaries as electability would be.

[Smid]

Most people who vote for either party are moderates.  The debate is framed by the extremists.

Quite so... I've heard it said that you need to be an extremist to win the Primary, a moderate to win the General.

You need to be in the extreme wing of your respective party to draw out the party base in order to win the nomination, which results in the least-electible candidate winning each party's primary vote. It takes a moderate to draw out independents and swinging voters to vote during the general election - precisely the person who typically doesn't win the primary... the irony of it all...