Exactly!

A lot of people are - and will - discount John McCain's performance this election season by talking about the headwinds he's facing, the uphill battle any Republican running for office would be, etc. But Matt Taibbi gets it spot on here:

But all of those "headwinds," or almost all of them, are the direct result of McCain having supported policies that are now unpopular. There is absolute justice in his facing a "headwind" from the financial meltdown, from the unpopularity of the Iraq war, and so on. How is that a "headwind"? That's just self-created unpopularity.

If McCain was a true maverick, and had been against any substantial Bush policy that matters to voters, he'd have a better chance here. He's fighting uphill because he put himself at the bottom of that hill.