Yes, they're going to try to tough it out. They are very, very good at it.
But coming in the last six days before the election, this really hurts them no matter what they do. Every day they are off message and having to defend Kerry and other Democrats who didn't immediately repudiate his words is another 16 percent of the available news cycle gone that they can never reclaim.
This neutralizes much of the money the Dems are throwing into ad buys right now, too. All wasted.
The GOP must press this on EVERY single campaign stop. Bush must pretend it is 2004 all over again to rally the base against Kerry and the troop-hating Democrats. Every Republican candidate should scream about this from the podium over the next six days. Total war. If the GOP talks about nothing but this, than the media MUST cover it.