So the consensus seems to be:
Run on the exact same "Experienced and Independent" message he ran on;
Pick someone (anyone) other than Palin (IMHO, no pro-choice moderate would be acceptable to the base, and Huckabee would scare too many swing voters);
And don't get suckered into shooting for IA, MI, WI, and above all, PA.
# 2 & 3 make sense, but #1 is still the big issue, and something tells me it wouldn't have worked:
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p6(See second to last question on page)
Experience was milked for all it could, and change was a losing battle that McCain realistically couldn't have improved much on. How could the numbers for "shares my values" have been improved from an already 2-1 deficit, or the "cares about people like me" been improved from a 3-1 deficit? THAT's the key to McCain having any hope (plus not picking a loser like Palin for VP or getting head faked into seriously contesting PA).
