Go to Hell. Go Directly to Hell. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200.

It had to happen. With just one week left before Election Day, the GOP wingnuts have gone completely insane. They are throwing anything and everything they can think of at Barack Obama in a last desperate attempt at scaring people into voting for John McCain.

To wit, see Christian talk-radio host Janet Porter's latest column, in which she claims in stark us-versus-them tones that "You Cannot Be a Christian and Vote for Obama:"

[T]his election is not about race. It's not about the economy. It's about obeying God...

Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse.

But the warning goes far beyond that. To those who think that God's grace gives them license to willfully disobey Him without consequences – think again:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' (Matthew 7:21-23)"

Yes, the GOP's God-guns-and-gays wing really is threatening Americans with hellfire and brimstone should we vote for Obama. Promising mayhem for voting the "wrong" way is nothing new for the Republicans, but I think this is the first time they have actually threatened us with eternal damnation.

And then she goes even further, saying that anyone who does not vote for McCain cannot be a Christian: "[O]bey Him in the voting booth and out of it. If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian."

Last I heard, God hasn't endorsed anyone this year.

Religious hatred has no place in American elections or anywhere else, and it only goes to show how desperate they are that they would stoop to these methods.

McCain is toast and they know it, so the Republicans have nothing to lose. But regardless of how McCain may go down in flames next week, such tactics may well ensure that the party goes down in flames with him.

Mud Will Be Flung Tonight

With eight days to go, John McCain's campaign clearly realizes it's over. Staffers have begun circulating their resumés, a senior McCain aide accused Sarah Palin of "going rogue," and the finger-pointing is rampant over at campaign HQ.

McCain and Palin have absolutely nothing positive to say on their own behalf - and that was before the story of Palin's $150,000 luxury shopping spree (paid for by the Republican Party) broke.

Remember John Edwards' infamous $400 haircut, about which the GOP spent weeks fulminating? The McCain campaign outspent him by 37,500%.

And the wretched excess for this supposed "plain folk hockey mom" just keeps on going - during just the first two weeks in October, the party shelled out $22,800 on Palin's makeup and another $10,000 on hairstyling. With Newsweek reporting that many GOP donors are "furious" over how their contributions were spent, the party seems in real danger of alienating their most deep-pocketed backers.

So the campaign has gone all-in on the mudslinging.

Palin's appeal last week to the "pro-America" parts of the country blew up in her face and she was forced to apologize, but the campaign continues to depict Barack Obama as a threatening Other. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who last distinguished herself by bragging that her Minnesota constituents have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, even called Obama "anti-American" and demanded a media exposé of similar senators and representatives.

A few weeks ago, Obama told the much-exploited "Joe the Plumber" that he wants to "spread the wealth around" rather than have it concentrated in only a few hands. So naturally, the McCain campaign seized on Obama's comment to paint him as some sort of secret Communist. The usual suspects (Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc) did their jobs admirably, parroting GOP talking points ad nauseum. Orlando TV reporter Barbara West even quoted Karl Marx's famous definition of Socialism ("from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs") and asked Joe Biden on Thursday, "how is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?" (Biden's response was to laugh and ask, "Is this a joke? Or is that a real question?")

So now we see what the GOP really boils down to. With all their usual wedge issues (terrorism, gay marriage, etc) having failed, with a barely-there candidate and a loose-cannon running mate, and with an economy in which income inequality in some major American cities is at third-world levels, all they have left is hate and fear. But the more hate and fear the GOP unleashes at Democrats, the more the American people turn away in revulsion.

Of course, the Republicans haven't yet figured that out. And the longer they take, the bigger the Democratic victory next week will be.

It's Over

Twenty years ago, Michael Dukakis blew his chance at being elected president when he was asked whether he would support executing someone who (theoretically) raped and murdered his wife Kitty. Already seen as so mild-mannered to be almost comatose, his response was to launch into a dry spiel on why he opposed capital punishment. His campaign promptly went into a death spiral from which it never recovered.

We may have seen John McCain similarly self-destruct during last night's debate. Smirking and snickering, giving his rictus-like grin, blinking furiously as he clearly struggled to hold his temper, the Republican nominee came across as little more than a cranky old man. One half expected him to jump up from his chair and yell at Barack Obama to get off his lawn.

From his relentless invoking of a supposedly undecided "Joe the Plumber" (who, as it turns out, is neither undecided nor a plumber) to his insulting "air quotes" when rejecting health-based exceptions to an abortion ban, McCain all but poured gasoline over himself and lit a match. (And let's not even get into his exploiting his Bangladesh-born daughter to bash Obama over abortion. As a parent via adoption myself, I find that crass and tacky at the very least.)

The real John McCain was on display last night for all to see - someone who is painfully out of touch with the real world and has no real interest in finding out about it. Safely ensconced within one of his dozen or so homes, he has no clue that there is a whole country outside his little bubble where people agonize over how to pay the mortgage and parents go hungry so their kids can eat. And since he has absolutely nothing to offer apart from yet another budget-busting tax cut for the rich, he has no choice but to try and distract people with manufactured non-issues.

When he once again brings up one-time radical William Ayres, no one outside the rabid GOP wingnuttia cares. Even fewer people are at all sympathetic when he whines about being criticized for the anti-Obama shouts of "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" at his rallies.

And when he does nothing but throw tons of mud at Obama, blame the target for fighting back and then immediately claim that "of course, I've been talking about the economy," he comes across as confused and bitter.

With McCain's campaign now sagging into a nosedive, his staffers are predictably turning on each other. Some are blasting the candidate's reckless selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and letting her run wild, calling her an "albatross" and a "total disaster." Every time she accuses Obama of "palling around with terrorists," McCain's poll numbers drop ever lower.

Too late, they realize that ignoring the real issues which confront Americans and instead running the campaign from a sewer is the contemporary equivalent of Pat Buchanan's "culture war" speech at the 1992 GOP convention. It's something that may fire up your core supporters but leaves the rest of us aghast.

The McCain campaign is toast. It's over.