McCain was the best of the worst. He was a war monger, but he could at least admit that he was wrong at times. He occasionally stood up to his principles, but usually backed down when it meant tax cuts or losing favor with his own party (see the tax bill where he gutted the ACA after previously refusing to gut the ACA).
Even the quote that keeps getting bandied about from his campaign where he defended Obama seems a little iffy. A woman said Obama was an “Arab,” to which McCain responded: “No. He’s a good man,” as if an “Arab” and “good man” were mutually exclusive.