It is not that McCain, or his campaign, are doing such a great job, they aren't, they're just sort of being low key. It's that the Democrats are doing such a poor job. They are convinced that the same approach that lost the last election will win this one.
Honestly, given that we were supposedly at peace, and enjoying economic prosperity, and given that Gore was the VP of a supposedly popular administration under those circumstances, he should have CRUSHED Bush, it should never have been close enough for Florida to have been an issue. That it WAS that close means they lost. And it means they did a terrible job. Their loss in 2000 was even bigger than Bush's loss to Clinton, they did a worse job than Bush did, and I thought that would have been near impossible. And they have not done much, if any, better since. The key to that is their assumption that EVERYONE truly HATES Bush AND the Republican party, and it doesn't matter how bad a candidate the Democrats put up, or how bad a campaign they run, they are preordained to win. That is why they are so surprised and angry when they lose, and so consumed by the false belief that they were robbed. Their continuing shift to the left will likely leave them further and further away.