The lines are becoming increasingly clear. With Clinton barely managing to scrape through by the skin of her teeth in Indiana, there is little doubt - should have been little doubt since April - that Obama will be the democratic nominee. John McCain pretty much settled into that idea over a month ago and that has had Democrat leaders worried - you know what’ll come next. The hand-wringing, the fears that the damage that Clinton and Obama have done will hand John the White House.

Yet, it also should be increasingly clear that a McCain Presidency will not be a further extension of the Bush years for the simple reason that, even if McCain makes the executive mansion, he’s being handed a Republican party in rout and looking like it’s old order will be demolished completely in short order. the survivors will almost certainly be centrists and liberal Republicans in the mold of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and himself.

It seems pretty likely that a McCain presidency will be a sore test of his bipartisan credentials and potentially a damaging confrontation between the executive, the states and congress. Democrats can afford to lose the White House and still control the levers of power.

Of course, a McCain presidency would also be an opportunity for him to rebuild the Republican party in his own image. We’ll have to wait and see.