OK, the Republicans escalated very fast in the last 36 hours. We went from a somewhat coy and snarky reference to "pallin' around with terrorists" on Saturday afternoon -- I'm not defending it, just saying that this was language that the campaign had obviously carefully crafted as part of some rollout of slime that was at last half-planned (which for McCain's people is like the best planning they've ever done) -- to rallies on Monday evening at which partisans in the crowd replied to the question, "Who is Barack Obama?" with shouts of "terrorist!" and "kill him!"

Then the chair of the Pennsylvania GOP -- not a nut in the crowd, the head of the state party -- issued a press release entitled "Obama -- A Terrorist's Best Friend."

I think a big question is what percentage of the country, like those of us reading this site, feel like vomiting now. Forty percent? Fifty? Sixty? Seventy-five?

It will be impossible to know whether this tactic is working until we see polls at the end of this week. One thing that gives me hope is that I really believe that the Obama campaign's drop of the Keating documentary -- and BTW "keating economics" was the #2 Google search term in the world today -- caught McCain off guard and caused them to spin out of control.

Actually, if you imagine it from their point of view, they are in a real pickle now. What is McCain going to say at the debate tomorrow night? Will he actually say in front of 60 million people that he believes Obama is giving aid and comfort to terrorists, if not an actual terrorist himself? Remember, it's a town hall and the rules permit the audience to react. He would run a real risk of being booed. But on the other hand, if he doesn't press these attacks, then he will come across as a pussy who is afraid to say what he really thinks when the bright lights are on him.

Also, there is the problem that McCain's "honor" had supposedly compelled him to forbid the campaign from using Jeremiah Wright. And yet, there's Palin, doing just that! I know some people think she is actually following orders, but I really believe that she is off the reservation now. As Frank Rich wrote on Sunday, she really believes she ought to be president now and that she knows better than John McCain how to win an election.

The bottom line is that Obama has anticpated all of this and done exactly what he and his people had obviously been planning to do, whereas the McCain people find themselves in a place they did not intend to get to so quickly, so publicly and in such a disgusting manner.

This might sound naive of me, but where can they go from here? They have literally accused their opponent of being a terrorist? Where else can they go? Have him arrested? Accuse him of being a pedophile? -- oh wait, they already did that a month ago.

A week from now, this election is going to be over. Either these tactics will backfire and McCain will be finished, or they will catch on and Obama will be finished. During this week we are going to learn exactly what America is made of, but remember -- we are also America. We can participate.