2. You’re missing the key point of weekend at Bernie’s.
It starts out as an innocent gag (well, considering that it involves a corpse) that just escalates out of control.
Lets take this issue then, if it had been a Bernie’s scenario, then they would have pretended that McCain was alive just to stay at his mansion (or something), then due to circumstances someone would have nominated him for President and they’re just trying to get out of it.

It’s just kind of stupid, and exactly what it’s supposed to mean is either complicated or not even thought out.

John McCain is older than Obama. The “joke” is that McCain died long ago, and someone else is using him as a puppet to get what they want. It’s really confusing if you try to read into it. Plus, take this “joke” to mean he died before having presidential asperations, and it makes even less sense because I’ve been a supporter of him for going on 3 years, and even two years ago he had presidential aspirations (and IMHO, some very good ideas and opinions that made me fall in love with him in the first place). You can’t embalm any corpse to still look like that after 2 or 3 years.

Total. WIN.