Exactly. If McCain somehow gets elected what are the chances of ever getting a more (meaning actual) conservative GOP candidate for POTUS in the future? The bar is being consistently lowered.
Yeah, I remember how much more conservative Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford were than Ronald Reagan. < /sarc>
We may be doomed. McCain is just far enough to the left that many democrats will vote for him and probably get him elected. The lesson will be that Republicans can win without conservatives. That lesson will probably spread down through the Senate and the House and we will see fewer and fewer conservatives in office.