Probably the two greatest assets McCain has is (1) he's old enough that he probably won't be running for a second term all through the first one, and (2) the public believes we will have a large majority of Democrats in both the house and the Senate. Most people wouldn't want to turn an un-tried and un-proven Obama loose with that. Especially since he's started flip-flopping on all of the important issues--even the war in Iraq now.