I’ve been looking over the results and doing a lot of thinking since Tuesday, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Barack Obama didn’t win so much as John McCain lost. Let me explain some of the reasons why.

First of all, this was an election where the Democrats were very heavily favored. They were up against an incumbent President with Nixon-like approval ratings, in the middle of two wars–one of which is causing a lot of war weariness in the pubic, with the economy looking like it’s on a serious downward spiral. Add into that the total abandonment of balance by what I call the MoveOn Media, who went so far into the tank that we have anchors who get tingly feelings down their legs for Obama. And then consider that with all those positives, the Democratic candidate for President won with just 53% of the vote.

Yep, you read right. Fifty-three percent.

To me, that says that the Democrats nominated a candidate so flawed that he could have been defeated by a good campaign. The obvious conclusion is that McCain did not run a good campaign.

He left, in naval parlance, too many guns on the deck unfired, or at best rarely fired. He declared out of bounds discussions of many issues, such as Obama’s 20-year relationship with the “good” pastor who declared “God D–n America” and called the nation the “US of KKK A,” or the many connections between the Democratic candidate and the man who first bombed the Pentagon and who still says he doesn’t think he did enough (that’s Bill Ayers for those still caught in the media bubble). If you want so-called “substantive issues,” how about McCain seldom–if ever–hitting Obama for his promise to give a “tax cut” to people who don’t even pay taxes? Or, if McCain wanted to stay on his home turf of national security, how about slamming Obama for declaring all the military programs he was going to cut, and what that would do to the security of Main Street, USA?

So, the conclusion is easy. McCain lost the election, the other guy didn’t win it. McCain had lots and lots of ammo and gunpowder for the guns on deck. And far too much of it is still unused, and that’s why he didn’t win.

And to all of those who told us over and over again ad infinitum that the oh-so-moderate McCain was the only Republican that could win this year, all I gotta say is, I don’t see any evidence of that.