Yesterday was a special day for John McCain, where he went back to the Senate and immediately engaged in his own version of bi-partisanship: by stabbing his supporters in the back (link):

At the all-day, private GOP meeting at the Library of Congress, McCain told colleagues their poor image among Hispanics, which he attributed to bitter intra-party squabbles over immigration reform, dealt his campaign a devastating blow.

"He talked about his own race and the devastating loss of Hispanic voters and how that arose on the rhetoric on immigration," said a Senate Republican who attended the meeting.

A Republican senator who attended the meeting said that McCain emphasized the importance of healing the rift with Hispanics by talking about immigration reform in a "positive" way. McCain also discussed the importance of expanding the size of the party's tent by appealing to young voters.

"So we're not just the party of graying white men," said the lawmaker.

Regarding the last, what I wrote about Mark McKinnon applies in this case also.

Regarding the rest, McCain was the candidate, not the rest of the GOP. He did his absolute best to pander, and no matter what he did, Barack Obama was able to undercut him. McCain spoke to the National Council of La Raza and pandered, but when Obama spoke to them he pandered even more. McCain vacillated between supporting comprehensive immigration reform and supporting "securing the borders first" and then pushing for "reform", with the latter as a slight sop to those who support our laws. Sources like Media Matters for America lied about that, pretending that he didn't support "reform".

No matter how bad McCain got, the Dems came back and were worse. One of the real lessons to be learned is that the GOP plan to import millions of future Democrats isn't such a bright idea after all. Another is not to give any position of power to a fool like McCain.