It seems that GOP insiders worry that Barack Obama will easily beat John McCain in November.

Thomas Edsell writes, for Real Clear Politics, that prominent GOP insiders worry about McCain’s chances this November. Instead of using the last couple of months – when he was already the nominee, and the Democrats were still trying to kill each other – to ‘define the debate in favorable terms,’ McCain spent ‘much of the valuable primary months defending himself on charges that his campaign staff was top heavy with lobbyists.’

Additionally, Edsell writes, ‘McCain has so far eluded the anti-Republican tidal wave that threatens to sweep away the party’s candidates at every level, from county councils to the U.S. Senate.’

But still, quite amazingly, he’s doing reasonably well in the polls. The very latest ones have him and Obama virtually tied… or so McCain’s team says.

Edsell contradicts that; sure, they may be tied with regards to the popular vote, but Americans do not elect their president based on such a system. No, they vote per state, and the winner of the state takes all delegates. This means that individual states are of great importance. On top of that it means that even a minor victory in a state (with many delegates) is incredibly helpful.

And when it comes to independent states, the situation is less positive for McCain.

Republican insiders know this, the author contends, and worry about November:

I think we’ve got a world of problems,” said one Republican strategist with extensive experience in presidential campaigns. He said this came home to him with a thud when he watched Obama and McCain give speeches last Tuesday, with the Democrat speaking before “20,000 screaming fans, while John McCain looked every bit of his 72 years” in a speech televised from New Orleans. This Republican cited the liberal blogger Atrios’ description of McCain’s speech with a green backdrop that made McCain “look like the cottage cheese in a lime Jell-O salad.”

For McCain to stand a chance of winning, the operative contended, the campaign, the Republican National Committee, or an independent group will have to finance sustained negative ads developing a broad assault on Obama’s credibility as a national leader at a time of terrorist threat. McCain, however, has gone out of his way to aggressively discourage such activity, the operative pointed out, which, he argued, may kill McCain’s chances.

Another strategist with similar presidential experience said “McCain has not claimed the maverick ground that should be his. He has not seized the mantle of ‘change’ and reform that he could own by going to Washington and saying, ‘you know me. You know I’ve been a reformer all my life. Now, here’s how I am going to change Washington if you elect me president.’ And he has not taken economic turf. He has not explained how he is going to grow, not Washington, as the Democrats plan, but this economy to meet the challenges of global competition.”

Frankly, I think that these Republicans see things quite well. Some argue that McCain will be able to compete in November because he is moderate, because people know him, and because he is experienced and reliable.

That may sound logical, but McCain’s main problem does not have anything to do with name-recognition, nor with policies.

No, McCain’s problem is… John McCain.

McCain comes across as someone who secretly thinks about retiring. It is not considered to be politically correct to talk about his age, but his age is a problem nonetheless. On television he bares close resemblance to a robot… from the 1930s. Or, perhaps a better example, like an energizer bunny who’s battery has gone dead.

You can see that the man may have inspired people 10, 15, and 20 years ago, but today he’s merely inspiring people to switch off the television and to go out and picknick.

This is McCain’s main problem, and this is why I believe that the Democrats will win fairly easily in November. Simply put, McCain is too boring to win in this day in age. 80 years ago he could have won, 70 years ago as well. But in the age of television and in the Internet? No.

No, Republicans should start thinking about 2012. If Obama wins, and he will, they will probably have a lot of material to work with four years from now. But they will need to come up with a candidate who is young, fresh, and inspiring. Not someone who hopes to bore America’s enemies to death.