McCain

Before I write the rest of this, let me qualify it by saying that I think John McCain would be a disaster as a president. I fear deeply for the future of Roe, I am worried about the likelihood of invading Iran, and the idea of Phil Gramm as Secretary of the Treasury gives me cold sweats.

However, as Ed Kilgore and Matt Yglesias note, that McCain is the likely nominee takes a lot of bad Republican issues off the table. This is a really good thing. The next president is going to hate immigrants. Torture will end. No one is going to say that climate change isn't happening. This is real progress. It is possible that McCain will turn to the right on immigration, but given that he hasn't in the primary, it's unlikely he would in a general election. This leaves plenty of points to slam McCain on, but I'm glad we won't be fighting over some really fundamental issues.

The reality is that even if McCain wins, our next president will be better than George W. Bush.