Doesn't wash. It's Kerry -- not Bush -- who's trailing in polls. Only a desperate campaign would try to pull something like this off.
In fact, that fairy tale doesn't even factor in, since nobody denies that the kerry campaign handed them off to CBS and Rather who aired the story without investigating or authenticating, even though they initially lied about "throughly investigating" and consulting "experts." Nobody in the country would even be talking about any of this if those things hadn't been done. Rathergate is all their baby.