Sarah Palin has been
traveling the country in recent days mocking Obama for "palling around with a
terrorist" and in the hours before Tuesday's debate, Mrs. McCain told a Nashville
newspaper that Barack Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American
history.”

The New York Times saw it differently from Mrs. McCain. 
In an editorial published in Wednesday's Times:

It is a sorry fact of American political life that
campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and
Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can
remember.  They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out
of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory
of race-baiting and xenophobia.  Senator Barack Obama has taken some
cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

On Wednesday, the McCain campaign got uglier.  At a
McCain-Palin rally at Lehigh University, the chairman of the Lehigh County
Republican Party implored the crowd to work hard to elect McCain or wake up
November 5 to see "Barack Obama, Barack Hussein Obama," as the president.

Then, Mrs. McCain further instigated the crowd (mob):
"The day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving
sent a cold chill through my body, let me tell you."  (Both
McCain and Obama have opposed Senate measures with troop funding attached. 
Obama voted against a troop-funding bill in May 2007 because it did not contain
language calling for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.  McCain voted against
a troop-funding measure earlier that year that did call for a withdrawal
timeline.)

When McCain finally addressed the rally, his references to
Obama were received with shouts of "socialist," "terrorist" and "liar".

Did the John McCain who had promised a high-brow campaign,
the John McCain who said: "Unfortunately, all I can do is, in as visible a way
as possible, disassociate myself from that kind of campaigning," did that John
McCain play to the lathered mob or did he disassociate himself?  You guess.