Will Kerry's gaffe hurt him in 2008? And over at the temporarily reborn Kerry Spot, Jim Geraghty wonders how it impacts the competition on the other side of the aisle in the Senate:

But if this Kerry thing dominates the last week of the campaign, a big reason is going to because the Media's Favorite Republican refused to provide cover to Kerry. Instead, as Byron reports, he's body-slamming Kerry. Hard.

If 2006 turns out to be a not-that-bad year for Republicans, and this story is credited with being a crucial late factor, then McCain - who already has a lot of Republicans owing him favors for helping them out on the campaign trail - is probably going to get a lot more conservatives saying, "You know, McCain might not be such a bad party man after all..."

When Maximum Pajamahadeen Roger L. Simon last appeared on the "Blog Week In Review" podcast, he quipped that the 2008 presidential election begins the day after the midterms. In actuality, Kerry's blunder and McCain's response may signal the start of it right now.

Update: More 2008 impact: John J. Miller writes, "This year's campaign already has dashed the presidential hopes of George Allen. I suspect that he won't even run". Actually, if he wins next week, I think he still might run, but he'll probably be too damaged to win the nomination. But who knows? Nobody suspected that Kerry would be the last man standing in his party's presidential race, during the Dean-obsessed fall of 2003.