I am going to disagree with Mr. Powell, but not in a hyper-partisan, lets mock liberals while we are taking pot shots at everybody, kind of way.
McCain was as center as one could expect a politician could get. He agreed with liberals on global warming, he worked hand in hand to try and find ways to bring illegal immigrants into the fold, he is against any kind of torture, he's worked with democrats on a number of things openly and unashamedly. He voted, like Obama, to bail-out the banks. McCain did everything he could to be a centrist politician. The only thing he didn't do, was pick a centrist running mate, and suprise, she gave him a desperately needed bump in the polls, when she was painted as this great conservative pick. Now the interest from moderate/independent America waned, as Mrs. Palin's inexperience with the national spotlight and lack of high level political experience/manuevering reduced the effectiveness of her selection. However, I believe if McCain was to have chosen another centrist candidate to run with him, he gets waxed in the GE in a Mondale like fashion.
All this talk about Republicans needing to "move to the center" is garbage. There is no one more center, than John McCain, and he got beaten by a large margin at the polls.
The reason I think John McCain lost, actually has nothing to do with conservatism, liberalism, etc....What his election night loss was, was simply the perfect storm of two things. The rejection of the Republican(read:not necessarily conservative) policy of the last 8 years, and the chance for America to embrace an "historic" election. John McCain stood no chance, because he failed to do the one thing that matters when running for the POTUS. He didn't show America that he was going to take America a new direction. It was all too easy for those on the left to paint John McCain as "another 4 years", precisely because he wasn't showing himself to be any different than the kind of Republicans(read again:not necessarily conservatives) that were running Washington over the past 8 years.
Forget all this "sliding to the right is dangerous" crap. We didn't, as a society, suddenly lurch to the left with Obama's election. America is still very much a right of center country, when considered amongst the other world governments. What is simply needed, is a simple powerful, consistent message to the American people delivered by a competent, vetted candidate who can clearly articulate Goldwater-esque conservative ideals. Thats it. Obama won the POTUS with nothing more than that(well minus the Golwater conservatism). His message was clear, concise, and delivered in a simple yet articulate manner. "Change", a promise that things would somehow be different, and that through him America would reject the past 8 years as if they were simply no more than a bad dream. He was able to articulate, and seperate himself(in the public opinion) from what was going on in Washington. Thats the formula for success. Americans do not care for complicity, no matter how valid or correct the stance might be. Conservatism has to simplify its code, reject the complicities laid into it by republicans over the last 8 years(if not more), and then find a leader who can coherently emulate this simplified message to the American people. Two things will happen, one they will reach the audience(moderates and independents) more quickly. The message will be easily digestable. Two, the Democrats will create their own damage, by the simple virtue of holding unchecked power in Washington for however many years it takes for a true conservative to find his/her way to the national stage. The people will want change, again. It will be up to conservatives, to sell to the American people, that they will be that change. And then, after Washington corrupts them and they abandon those principles that got them elected, the liberals will have their chance.
Wash, lather, rinse, repeat.