Right Turn in July Put McCain on Unfamiliar Path

"If you had told me two years ago that John McCain would end his active national political life perceived by many as the candidate of the special interests tied to lobbyists; that many people considered his campaign dishonorable and focused on small things; that he wasn't seen as presidential and the right person to have in a crisis; and that the broad center in American politics had turned against him, I would have laughed in your face," said John Weaver, his longtime friend who resigned from the campaign in a power struggle last year.

"That's not who he is," Weaver said. "But that's the campaign that he chose."

Push to Attack Obama's Character

As the national conventions neared and Obama took his much-ballyhooed overseas trip, McCain's assault on Obama's character and policies intensified. But the campaign never seemed to settle on a single attack, as Republicans had in 2004 when they labeled Sen. John F. Kerry a "flip-flopper."

Despite the stated willingness to take risks, the campaign often appeared to waver about how far to go against its rival. McCain's refusal to use Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and Obama's long-standing positions on campaign finance discouraged the kind of third-party attacks that had worked against Kerry in 2004. How to deal with Obama's race also lingered as a problem.

"It kind of muted people's willingness to make character attacks," said Chris LaCivita, a Republican operative who formed a group that ran the first ads about Obama's connection to Vietnam War-era radical William Ayers.

At the same time, McCain was stressing his conservative credentials, hoping to heighten the contrast with Obama. McCain's straightforward answers during a religious forum at Saddleback Church in California helped, as did his forceful response to the Russian invasion of Georgia.

In the process, though, McCain was pushed to the right, and his staff started to worry that he was losing his identity. Their one chance, they thought, to reestablish his credentials as a maverick reformer was to make a bold vice presidential pick.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the Republican turned independent, emerged as a popular option, but his positions on social issues were deemed problematic. Graham pushed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) as a "transformational choice." But once his name leaked and conservatives reacted negatively, it was over.

Aides thought Democrats would have a field day with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's anti-McCain statements from the primaries. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was viewed as a likable, but not bold, option.

That left Palin, whom McCain viewed as a like-minded reformer and maverick. "It was a game-changer in the sense that it married history with history," Graham said. "We had to do something different. We had to make a bold pick."

McCain thought Palin would help him reach out to Democratic women, reinforce his maverick image and excite his base. At first, the pick did all three. In the end, though, only the Republican base remained enthusiastic.

"The Palin pick was a base pick in a non-base election," Weaver said. "In this media world that we live in, you can't take someone who has not had any exposure, who had not had any vetting, public and private, and strap her to a rocket."