"How far the Senator for Arizona travelled between that moment and 2008, when he himself chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. It looked clever but, asSidney Blumenthal writes in today’s Guardian, it also made it hard for McCain to argue that he was not a “core” conservative or, indeed, to attack Obama as inexperienced. His mishandling of the economic crisis and the congressional row that followed finished him off. In this sad story of diminution lies a terrible warning to Cameron and Brown about what a campaign can do to a candidate. This will not be McCain’s day, and it was his last chance to become President. But, amid the Obamania of the coming days, do not forget the extraordinary contribution this great American has made to his country, to international relations and to the free world." (Matthew D'Ancona)