Actually the democrats forced it because they picked hillary and obama. You only get two choices in America, no matter how out of touch with reality both of those choices are.
The democrats are the default party of anyone who isnt republican whe it comes to major elections. Real true democrats, are quite scary, viz
www.democraticunderground.com .
McCain could have won. In 2000 he had the entire not-a-right-wing-crazy or maoist vote in his pocket. He made the choice to toe the current republican party line and pander to protestant extremists and on other issues him and obama were so incredibly centrist that there was no difference.