Actually, I looked long and hard at John McCain in 2008 and came to the conclusion that he was a decent man, a bad candidate and would have been an absolutely horrific president.
You didn't look long and hard, then.
I have to agree. McCain would have been a pretty good president. He'd have had the ability to work with both sides, he wouldn't have been beholden to the various levels of crazy in his party, which never liked him.
Sadly, after years of Democrats saying, "We could almost stand Republicans if they were like John McCain", the time the GOP had a temporary bout of sanity and nominated him, the left passed.