The reason Republicans think the media is biased against them is that they believe their ideology more than they believe reality. If there's a differeence between Republican ideology and reality, then reality must be wrong. Or at least the medium for viewing reality, the media.
According to the most recent polls Kerry would have 273 EVs if the election were held today. See
http://www.electoral-vote.com/. Kerry is on track to win PA and CO. And he's split in FL. BTW, undecideds are going to break for Kerry. And there's gonna be high turn-out, so polls of likely voters overstate Bush's strength.
So Kerrry doesn't need to recover. Bush needs to discover his "Willie Horton" to hammer Kerry. Were the Swiftboat lies Bush's best attack?
