Deans interviewed on TV

Hey, look at the TV set...it turns out Howard Dean is married.

Tonight, Judith Steinberg Dean gave her first television interview to Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Primetime." I watched most of it -- though I kept checking into the Kansas basketball game on ESPN 2 (hopeless cause...a home loss to Richmond).

Of course, both of the Deans were present (and yes, ABC showed tape of the famous 1992 interview with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton).

ABC played the "crazy" Dean "yeehaw" moment (ABC spells it Eyyahh!) from earlier in the week. And then they played it again...and I'm pretty sure they played it again. Was in three times in all?

Maybe they kept playing it because of something Dean said: "I've only seen it once. I've only seen it once."

The tape does make Dean seem over-the-top, but it was a campaign event among true believers. That would be more like a sporting event, I think, than a policy event. At sporting events, crazy screaming is the norm.

Thus, I would say who cares about Dean's tape, but his poll numbers have been dropping and something must explain it. Maybe it was the "war whoop," as Chris Matthews called it.

In a nutshell, I think there are multiple possible reasons: Kerry has some momentum from Iowa and he's also from a next-door state.

Dean has been pushing his strengths, but they are not so novel any more -- or were never all that important. For example, just about every major candidate is now anti-Bush on Iraq. Even the guys who voted for war (save Lieberman) And not many Democrats are going to vote for a candidate just to achieve a balanced budget.

Dean needs some good news.

I think it may be that the race won't be decided until March 2 when California, New York, and 8 other states (including Vermont, Maryland, Minnesota and Massachusetts) vote.

Update: Apparently, Edwards made some major errors in regard to the Defense of Marriage Act in tonight's debate. Chris Matthews implied that it was intentional spin to try to play multiple sides of the issue.