Senator John McCain (AZ, R) has won the Republican nomination and will be the nominee running for president this November in the general election. He has won 20 states, against Mike Huckabee’s 8. After winning Texas yesterday, he secured the last delegates he needed to become the Republican nominee.

In 2000, Bush beat McCain for the Republican nomination and today Bush endorsed McCain. Bush had stated that because of his low approval ratings, if his opposition would be more helpful to McCain than his endorsement, he would offer it. Most of their views coincide with one another. They are both not opposed to the war in Iraq, and they have similar views on immigration. They differ mostly on taxes, campaign finance, and issues on the environment. Those are all important differences, but I think that this November people are heavily against the war in Iraq. I think the war’s unpopularity has raised a lot of issues of morality within the Bush administration and aligning himself with that administration will hurt McCain. McCain is a strong candidate for the Republican party. He is known as a fiscal conservative, which appeals to Republicans but he also supports some liberal issues like leniency for illegal immigrants and he has favored caps on carbon dioxide emissions, which many Republicans find too heavily regulated now. McCain talks as if he is anti-corporation and seems boldly against pork-barrel spending and earmarks. To Republicans he appears to be shifting too far to the left, but I think that makes him a much stronger candidate than Huckabee. This November he will be up against Hillary or Obama, and this year the Democrats are enthusiastic about a new run for the white house. I think the only way the Republicans have a shot, given the low approval of the current administration, is to nominate McCain. Many Democratic voters may find themselves questioning the Democratic candidate this November since there has been so much heat for the nomination, and with McCain running, many may find themselves voting Republican. Probably way more than the number of Republicans who are so far right they will vote for Obama for spite alone. Hopefully the enthusiasm within the Democratic party will be enough to win in November.