Though I hate to say it, McCain had to win.
If McCain had lost it would have been a very useful tool for the Democrats to use against Palin, Scott Brown, and the whole TEA party movement. Also, there is Rand Paul, who is already on the fringe, and Hayworth was coming off as another fringe Libertarian type.
The last thing the TEA movement, and the GOP in general needs is an extremist image.
So far, it has done well in avoiding that label from the MSM, but all it will take are a couple of odd candidates and a few spectacular losses to create an atmosphere of TEA implosion. The GOP and the populist TEA movement has momentum with about 10 weeks left. Shutting that down would be a liberal's wet dream...And for us a nightmare of Elm Street proportions.
We need to keep the populist, squishy image for now. Once we are in and things improve, we can work to tie up a few loose ends like McCain.