nomo is correct. America didn't want McCain the first time when he ran ANTI-Second Amendment, and McCain-Feingold Act, ANTI-Freedom of speech. So! He saddled a different horse and rode back across the creek to the other side. They still didn't want him.
For all Palin's contradictory politics, (and they are legend), she helped him more than she hurt him. McCain like many others, is an albatross that needs to be cut from the neck of conservative wannabes. Anyone whom supported McCain in the name of conservatism, doesn't understand the meaning of conservative.