The last few days of this election season have felt funny. Democrats are making serious gaffs in key races left and right. (Note to Maryland voters: Ben Cardin is NOT the guy you want representing you in the world’s greatest deliberative body. He would lose a debate to a brown paper sack. Note to Harold Ford: get a grip, dude.)

At the same time, it’s hard to tell if there’s any actual evidence that voters care. Conservatives are pointing to a spat of polls that show races closing. But in many of the same races, there are other polls showing no real tightening at all.

So, the question of the week: how much can Democrats’ campaigns implode before voters notice?

Certainly, the answers depend on the state and the campaign. But the polls are not at all enlightening. Four years ago, a colleague predicted the total demise of telephone surveys in political campaigns. It’s clear that he was right — and one cycle earlier than he predicted.

Jim: I feel like we’re going to get one of two results on Election Day. Either the MSM is right, the polls are right, the lefty blogs are right, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean are right, and they’ve got the real vision that this country wants… or we don’t, and all of these folks have been in a bubble and an echo chamber and remain as out of touch as ever. Today my gut is telling me - and I could very well be wrong - that it breaks one way or the other in the last day or two. Either we’re saluting Senators Steele, and Kean, and Burns, and Talent, and Corker and Allen, or we’re saying farewell to most of them.

The past few weeks have been odd - I’m seeing poll numbers that just don’t make sense, and that I just don’t trust. It’s them against me; maybe I’m in the bubble or the echo chamber. In 2004, I was really, really right; who knows about this year. My book is already not-quite-disproven, but terrorism and national security clearly got knocked from the headlines for quite a few weeks because we all had to figure out which Republican was secretly gay.

Either the MSM still has the capacity to set the agenda and persuade voters, or they don’t. If I’m wrong, it means I have to go back to the drawing board, and rethink what I thought I knew. If I’m right… well, save the date, because this is going to be GLOAT CENTRAL.