John McCain has a lot of reasons to thank the New York Times these days. Besides for the infamous He-May-Be-Screwing-a-Lobbyist Article, which ironically has helped McCain shore up the Republican base and raise a ton of money, the folks on the editorial side of the paper are also lobbing him softballs.

Take Bob Herbert's column about what will happen to the Democratic presidential race if Hillary Clinton doesn't step aside after the results are in from Texas and Ohio. He writes that this is somehow a terrible prospect for Democrats, as though another couple of months of prominent news coverage of the race will hurt the eventual nominee's chances. If the counting gets complicated, he writes, "the McCain forces will pop the corks on another round of Champagne."

But perhaps Herbert's column is just a result of a bad writing day rather than an institutional pro-McCain slant. Judging from his almost indecipherable last paragraph, he could have used more sleep (and fewer subordinate phrases).

Tuesday's elections may decide the nominee. But if they don’t, the wisest heads in the party will be faced with the awesome task of preventing a train wreck that would ruin what was supposed to have been a banner year.