Liberal magazine The Nation weighs in on Collins' lukewarm opposition to McCain's robocalls:

If Susan Collins wants to be like Margaret Chase Smith, she needs to make her own "Declaration of Conscience" -- and then she needs to act upon it.

[...]doesn't she need to speak up, forcefully and in detail about why the McCain campaign's tactics are wrong? Doesn't she need to take her party's nominee to task and say, as Margaret Chase Smith did more than half a century ago: "I don't want to see the Republican Party win that way."

And what if McCain does not listen to Collins? What if he and his campaign refuse to halt not just the robo calls but related smear tactics against Obama, who happens to be a colleague of the Maine senator?

If McCain refuses to right the course of his McCarthy-like campaign, shouldn't Collins quit as his campaign co-chair for Maine?

Kevin Wack thinks the robocall issue helps the Collins campaign and represents a tactical mistake by the Democrats.

If the new numbers from Research200/DailyKos are right, it doesn't really matter. The poll has Collins up by 13 points. They also have Obama up by 11 in the second district.