Anne Applebaum and Joe Klein, like countless others, cannot support McCain because of his repulsive, vicious, negative, McCarthyite campaign and his unvetted spur-of-the-moment decision to pick Sarah Palin, an unhinged, know-nothing, delusional religious fanatic, as his veep. But Mickey argues that none of this matters - because McCain is really a good government liberal who just had to be mean to stand a chance. Does Mickey really believe that? Does he believe that McCain's campaign and his pick of Palin tell us nothing about what kind of president he'd be? Does he believe that we have learned nothing about McCain's character in this campaign or that character is irrelevant in a president?

Mickey, of course, is obsessed with immigration and believes that McCain would actually support a Bush-style immigration law were he to win next week. Really? Really? You see: what I've learned from watching McCain these past two months is that there's nothing he wouldn't do if it could get him a small bump in a news cycle, polarize the electorate, and appeal to a rabid base that is now his only source of power.

In my view, McCain would clearly be prepared to veto such a bill if it helped bring his party base behind him. He would also have a veep who is running from Day One to succeed him and eager to play the most revanchist elements in her base against her boss. She'd become an anti-immigration hawk as soon as you can say "you betcha" - especially if threatened by a Dobbsian primary challenger in 2012. I mean: if she's prepared to undermine him in a national campaign, when he's the only reason she isn't still padding her expense account in Alaska, why wouldn't she do it in office? One thing we have also learned from the campaign is that Palin would work to undermine McCain from the very start. I think even the McCain camp has figured that out by now.