John McCain has joined Barry Goldwater, Morris Udall and Bruce Babbitt on the list of Arizonans who have failed in their bids to become president.

What went wrong in the 2008 campaign?

Money, say the experts -- the millions raised by Barack Obama and the millions that disappeared in the nation's economic meltdown.

The executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, Sean McCaffrey, said it was the GOP that made the big mistake.

"We as a party did nothing pro-actively when we saw how the Obama campaign was doing its fund-raising," McCaffrey said, alleging that the Democrats raised "literally tens of millions of dollars" illegally overseas.

"You have reports of phone banks in the Gaza Strip, you have get out the vote calls coming from Romania, you have donors who are using Disney characters and NFL team members who are allegedly making unmarked credit card donations time and time again," McCaffrey said.

He said federal election officials contacted an Ohio woman about a $72,000 donation to Obama that was made on pre-paid credit cards and she told them she hadn't given a dime.

McCaffrey said legal action is possible.

"I've already promised a thorough audit of just the Arizona Democratic Party's campaign finances," he said. "This is an organization that is litigious, loves to file complaints against us and has never had an audit of its own finances done, and so I personally promised that."

Not everyone in the Republican Party agreed with McCaffrey.

Brett Mecum, political director for the state GOP, said McCain's loss did not come so much from what he did wrong, but what Obama did right.

"I think that you saw just a better organization, an organization on a scale that I don't think we've ever seen in the Democratic Party," Mecum said.

He said the organization helped Obama win in states that typically vote Republican.

"Places like Florida and Colorado and Nevada and New Mexico. Places that are either swing states or had been Bush states in 2000 or 2004."

Elias Bermudez of "Immigrants without Borders" said McCain could have done more to attract moderates.

"He could have said, 'I am for immigration reform, I am for working out a deal in the war in Iraq, where we can leave with dignity and honor and leave successfully.' I think he could have done more to attract the moderates and the independents in order to win the election."

Arizona Republican Congressman Trent Franks said McCain could not overcome the economic meltdown.

"The incredible inustice of all that is that he was the one who warned us about the Fannie Mae and the coming crisis there, whereas Barack Obama was part of the groups who were suing the banks, getting them to make these unsound loans... If the American people had understood that clearly, the result may have been different."

Franks said it was the American people who really lost.

"John McCain goes down in history as someone who has sacrificed everything he's had for the sake of his country. He will be remembered very, very fondly. He's got a lot of things he still has to do in the U.S. Senate."

Franks was among the McCain supporters who gathered at the Arizona Biltmore as McCain made his concession speech.

Several were in tears.

"It's sad -- really, really sad. That's the way I feel," said Joy Bowling. "I am very disappointed."

Laura Lee Sims of Peoria said she was disappointed, too, but that now is the time for the country to come together behind Obama.

"I hope he's able to prove himself to the country. I don't want the worst for him -- he is our leader."

Sims and others said that, up to the end, they had believed McCain would pull out a victory.