It was a decent speech, but the more fundamental problem for McCain was the lack of any actual message and this was likely due to the fact that McCain had no governance/policy differences from Bush.

Yeah, I agree with that. But I think had Thoughtful, Measured McCain (of the concession speech) run instead of Frantic, Messy McCain, he might have have been able to tailor a message of some force and been able to distance himself from Bush, as difficult as that might have been ("I've voted with the president 90% of the time," etc.) But FM McCain foreclosed that possibility pretty effectively.

"We’d have seen a lot less of Cranky, Desperate McCain and more of Funny, Decent McCain and have had a lot less of the “paling around with terrorists” crap."

Umm, why? If after the multiple town halls, McCain were still behind, why does anyone (from David Broder, who has been the chief conduit for this meme, on down) believe McCain would have gone through the last month of the campaign gracefully, rather than peddling crap in a desperate attempt to come from behind? If he would do it after 3 debates, why would it be any different after 10?

He made the best speech of the campaign after he lost, but that seems par for the course. Kerry and Gore did so as well.

if that John McCain had run for president, the outcome might have been different.

It was a decent speech, but the more fundamental problem for McCain was the lack of any actual message and this was likely due to the fact that McCain had no governance/policy differences from Bush.

He could have been as gracious in the campaign as he wanted to, but I doubt that it would have had any significant impact.