A screaming headline on Drudge, and a new Zogby poll showing McCain pulling ahead of Obama by five points means one thing only: media meltdown. Barring an Obama VP pick, this poll is certain to lead tonight on Chris Matthews, CNN and the rest of cable news – even though it's just one single data point that (for now) contradicts other polls, and even though Zogby's methods and accuracy are controversial at a minimum. ("The house of sand and Zog," Mickey Kaus memorably mocked.) It's one number, scarcely different from the last month's worth of data. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be way more worried. The Cocoon Frank Rich isn't worried. His Sunday column takes comfort in the race's underlying stability:

Timesmen Nagourney and Zeleny say Obama's found a running mate. But he has only told his closest advisers. And not the person he chose, even! Who is either Evan Bayh (ugh), Tim Kaine (eh), or Joe Biden (!). He will text you, his supporters, whenever he decides to make his announcement. Last night political expert hack loser Mark Halperin said Nagourner and Zeleny (and Drudge!) were all flat-out wrong but now he must've have been informed that they're right so he took his post down and replaced it with something about how Joe Biden is the guy (and when it turns out to be Bayh he'll take that down too.) Morning! [NYT]

Everybody has their favorite Olympic sport. Of course closeted gay Matt Drudge's is wrestling. Repressed sexual urges come out in the strangest ways—like linking obsessively to wrestling, the most sexual of all the sports, on the Drudge Report.Other stories linked to on Drudge include "Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian throws away medal in Olympic hissy fit," "Huskers dismiss 2 wrestlers accused of posing nude," and "High school wrestler arrested for assault, exposing genitals during practice."

This is great. The McCain campaign is crying bias and went running to Drudge because the New York Times wouldn't print their stupid editorial. See, the Times printed an editoral by Barack Obama called "My Plan for Iraq." So McCain "wrote" an editorial about how Obama's plan for Iraq was to lose just like we lost Vietnam and John McCain's plan was to win the war. So the Times said, hey, why don't you try another draft of this where you articulate what "winning" means? The McCain campaign took this as a rejection and now they're all whining like the embittered nation of recession-imagining whiners they hate.

What month is it... July? It's been weeks since someone wrote a story about how Matt Drudge is the King of All Information! Thanks, Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza, for stepping up to the plate. The populace must be periodically reminded that all the news they receive comes from a reclusive weather-obsessed weirdo in Florida, lest they get uppity. So this week The Original Blogger is responsible for that Jesse Jackson "cut Obama's nuts off" story that the kids are so into. Because yesterday evening he, uh... hyped the fact that it would be appearing on Fox later that night, after Sean Hannity announced it on the radio hours earlier and as Jackson himself released his apology to the wires. Follow? Matt Drudge is responsible for this story that was already everywhere by the time he picked it up. Of course, we're just being cynical—he's still ridiculously over-influential! But WHY?

Earlier this year, Matt Drudge saved the life of Prince Harry, the UK's adorable ginger-haired lunkheaded Nazi ruler. Harry, you see, had been deployed to Afghanistan, where there are lots of people who'd like to blow him up. But Drudge revealed the deployment, breaking a media embargo, and then they were forced to send Harry back home, where he's more or less safe. For some reason this enrages the English. So the Mayor of Windsor and Maidenhead, whose name is probably spelled "Higginbobotham" but pronounced "Higgins", has demanded an apology from Drudge. The apology is probably not forthcoming. [UPI]

Game, set, match: Drudge. That's how you do quasi-sexist. Confusingly. [Drudge, Earlier]

Unlike certain grandfatherly former presidents, Matt Drudge hasn't yet forgotten the dark lessons of our shared childrens' book history. It starts with a hug, Jimmy—then Hamas will want a cookie. Soon you've handed over Israel to extremists, and then they'll just be thirsty for milk. American milk. [Drudge]

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would fight an initiative to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage if it qualifies for the November ballot. Schwarzenegger said he was confident that such an amendment, which already are on the books in 26 other states, would never pass in California and called it a 'waste of time.'"

OMG! The Clintons are making lots of money! Or... something? We don't know what it means but it's SHOCKING. [Drudge]

Absolut ran an ad in Mexico showing the pre-1848 map of that country with the tagline, "In An Absolut World." The ad agency explained to the LA Times, unnecessarily, that "The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans." Now I see! Well, true patriots in this country aren't about to stand for some Mexicans reconquering the American Southwest via a liquor advertisement. Some internet users—even Long Islanders!—are calling for an Absolut boycott [LAT via Drudge]. That's fine with us. Xenophobes don't need to be drinking in the first place. The full version of the treasonous ad is below.

A selection of the images used on the popular news aggregating website The Drudge Report this morning. Draw your own conclusions, or don't. [Drudge]

Author and noted critic-slugger Stanley Crouch, on Hillary Clinton: "On TV, Clinton seems by turns icy, contrived, hysterical, sentimental, bitter, manipulative and self-righteous." Play along at home: which of those adjectives also describe Stanley Crouch? Hint: we don't know or care if he's sentimental, and "icy" is only an insult to ladies. (We read a day-old Crouch column because Drudge decided it and a day-old Hitchens column were important enough to be highlighted this morning. Fun fact: both columns call Hillary "hysterical"!) [NYDN]

Of course, Clinton surrogates are once again changing the goal-posts, suggesting that superdelegates make their decisions based on the wishes of both Earth and sister planet Mars. [Drudge]

The Drudge Report's permanent list of links to blogs, papers, columnists, and other sources has always been idiosyncratic. Peggy Noonan and Rosie O'Donnell share precious space with Forbes and CNN; blogs are generally underrepresented but Gawker's long been a staple. Earlier today, he quietly updated. New to the Drudge permalink club: Daily Kos, Free Republic, and Talking Points Memo, among others. The man's had Perez Hilton up there for god knows how long but he's just now getting around to a web magazine that's been online almost as long as he has? And such belated recognition of Kos? Is liberals growing hatred of Hillary Clinton really all it took to win Matt's love?

This is my new favorite website. [Dog Report Dot Com]

During Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential run, he was accused by Democratic rival Jerry Brown of funneling money through his wife's law firm. Hillary Rodham Clinton, responding to the charges by affirming that her business was one she took seriously, famously said, "You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life." That quote, replayed endlessly, debated in columns across the country, was one of the first Hillary Clinton missteps seized upon by Republicans as proof that Hillary was a terrifying, corrupt, ball-crushing feminazi bitch. All this is a pretend-think-y historical intro to two funny Hillary Clinton photos, btw. One of which, above, is on her campaign site right now, in an inexplicably SPLOID-esque (or lolcat-esque) sans-serif-text-on-odd-image thumbnail. The other is on top of Drudge, and it's below.

Trashy tabloid The Globe ran that photo of Obama in a turban and SCARY MUSLIM APRON last May. And no one noticed! Ha. Everyone thought it was photoshopped, apparently. Drudge: still more powerful than our nation's old people. And Ed Anger is madder than a Beatnik at Perry Como concert! [PalmBeachPost via Romenesko]