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Weekly Standard senior editor Jonathan V. Last supplies the best description yet on how the blogs broke the Rathergate scandal.

A classic from today's New York Times ... all the polls (except one or two oddballs) show that Pres. Bush has jumped into a commanding lead--from about 5 to as much as 14 points. The Times headline on Carl Hulse's piece: "Varying Polls Reflect Volatility, Experts Say."

Slate's Mickey Kaus: "The N.Y. Times headline for November 3: BUSH RE-ELECTED DESPITE UNEASE VOICED IN SURVEY"

Even more astonishing: CBS appears to blame the White House for Rathergate in a Los Angeles Times piece by Josh Getlin, Elizabeth Jensen and Scott Collins. How? Because the White House refused to comment on the accuracy of the documents. CBS translated that to mean: "The White House said they were authentic, and that carried a lot of weight with us." William J. Dyer, aka blogger "Beldar," picks up the story.

Is John Kerry's campaign directly tied to the forgeries? Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs reports that high campaign official Max Cleland admitted to speaking with Bill Burkett in August and suggesting that Burkett call Kerry's people. Roger Simon wonders if it even matters whether the direct link exists.

Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes suggests the reason there are fewer swing voters is because they're trending Republican.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal's free online edition, Arkansas political columnist Kane Webb characterizes the campaign's new hires as "Kerry's Hail Mary." But alas, "even the world's greatest gag writer needs a front man who can deliver the lines."

Weekly Standard publisher William Kristol writes that John Kerry is a man in a hurry--to surrender Iraq.

The right time; the right column; the right columnist. P.J. O'Rourke tells readers of the London Daily Telegraph "Why Americans hate foreign policy." I'll give you the answer: "America is not 'globally conscious' or 'multi-cultural.' Americans didn't come to America to be Limey Poofters, Frog-Eaters, Bucket Heads, Micks, Spicks, Sheenies or Wogs. If we'd wanted foreign entanglements, we would have stayed home."

Kofi Annan said that the Iraq War was "illegal." New York Post columnist Amir Taheri thinks that Annan acted dishonorably, and we must demand either an investigation or an apology.

Robert Spencer, writing in Human Events, says that leading Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis told the German newspaper Die Welt that "Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century." Others think it will occur much sooner than that.

Ann Althouse cringes when she hears that John Kerry delivers "humanizing" pop references in "the usual leaden Kerry cadence."

The more people John Kerry hires to run his campaign, the lower his poll numbers go. New York Times columnist David Brooks knows why: "There are no swing voters left, because they've all been hired by campaign Kerry."

What's wrong with the Democratic party? "In short," says Victor Davis Hanson, "too many Kerrys, Kennedys, Gores, Edwards, and Deans and not enough Liebermans, Gephardts, and Zell Millers."

Europeans are lazy. Michael Johnson brags about it in the International Herald Tribune.

This one is interesting: London Daily Telegraph columnist Sarah Sands surprises herself by admitting that "Kitty Kelley has sold me on Bush." Meanwhile, Weekly Standard writer Andrew Ferguson does a Kitty Kelley on Kitty Kelley.

London Daily Telegraph humor columnist Craig Brown puts some of that proverbial special sauce on his gently malicious anti-American screed "Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Burger." Not all 15 items on his list are precisely accurate.

Sunday is "Talk Like a Pirate Day." God help us. Mateys.