I went to the John McCain event at Federal Hall in New York City this evening.  It's not because I am a McCain supporter - I assure you I am not.  I just happen to go to the New York Sports Club next door to Federal Hall, and I am easily distracted.  
I noticed the motorcade immediately, which reminded me that there was a McCain event to begin with.  There weren't any campaign posters advertising the appearance anywhere.  I was intrigued, and really only want to try and get my picture taken if McCain worked the rope line.  They told me to go around back because I would have a better chance there.  When I got to the back I noticed that there was a line to get in, and there were signs posted that said it was a ticket-holder event only.
I asked if there were additional tickets available, and they said they were completely full.  I waited around for a few minutes with other hopefuls, and eventually they let us in.  It was a fairly straightforward campaign stop, but I noticed these three things that could affect the general election:
1.  John McCain looks like a lizard
2.  He does not know how to tailor a message.  There is a difference between pandering (coming up with b******t to tell the audience for the express purpose of getting elected) and tailoring your message (omitting ideas when talking in front of an audience that will be hostile to said idea).  McCain should learn that before railing against economists for not supporting his gas tax holiday, especially when only a stone-throw from the stock exchange.  Men in business suits made up a significant percentage of the audience (again, we were in the heart of the financial district).  These were people who understand economics and indeed profit of economic research.  The audience was noticeably chilly during that part of the speech, and I also noticed that McCain did not pause for applause.  If he wants to appeal to voters he needs to learn to tailor his message, and that means not telling a room full of stock brokers that you don't trust economists.  
3.  John McCain does not generate excitement.  What else is new, right?  But you would think that filling 200 seats in downtown New York City in a weekday at 7pm should be no sweat - even for a tickets-only event.  Right?  Wrong.  I was astonished that I was able to get in.  John McCain is as close to rock star status as most Republicans can ever hope to get.  Everybody knows the McCain story (for the people who can't read and thus haven't read the McCain bio in the news will soon be able to get it as a children's book courtesy of Meghan McCain).  His biography alone should fill an auditorium ten times as big as today's venue.  But after the ticket holders went inside tonight's event they realized they didn't have enough people to fill all the seats.  They couldn't find enough McCain supporters to fill 200 seats!  So they let in a dozen people (myself included) from the street.  Even more astonishing is that I saw numerous McCain staffers sitting down filling up space (staffers normally stand on the periphery).  Clearly they were not able to fill the place, even with passers by, and used staffers to fill in the rest so it would not look empty broadcast live on Fox.  
These things tell me that not only is he a bad campaigner, but his lousy campaigning is turning people off so much that he has trouble filling a small space.  I may be completely misreading the situation, but that was my feeling from inside.  If anyone has another take, I'd love to hear it in the comments section.