Blogs for Bush posts today on the strange interview in People magazine with the Doctors Dean, zeroing in on what has to be the most unusual campaign admission since Jimmy Carter revealed the lust in his heart:

Howard: I'm not a big fan of most anti-anxiety drugs, just because they have addiction potential and things like that. You know, once in a while, I take stuff for sleep. That makes sense. But, listen, I don't want to dispense medical advice in PEOPLE magazine. The anti-anxiety drugs are very good for people who —

Judy: And a lot of them are NOT addictive these days.

Howard: Right. And you know anti-anxiety drugs and sleep drugs were essentially the same thing when I was practicing. And my experience was whenever I took a sleeping pill, there would be rebound insomnia and so I didn't like to take them.

I'm not really sure what prompted the People interviewer to ask about medication -- it was a follow-up to a question about anxiety attacks Dean experienced in the past, also a subject I'm hearing for the first time but apparently something known to the reporter. People take medication for plenty of good reasons and most of the time they are effective and cause no problems, and I'm sure that's the case with Dean.

That being said, why is Dean volunteering this information? What possible good can come from admitting that you occasionally need sleeping pills? Not only does this give ammunition to your opponents, but by bringing it up himself unsolicited, it makes it fair game for the campaign; after all, no one can argue that Dean wasn't using the People interview to promote his candidacy. He's made his anxiety attacks and pill usage another addition to the ick factor that has accrued around him, along with his temper and his clumsy exploitation of religion.

Dean seems to be melting down under the glare of a national campaign. Frankly, he's in over his head, and the water's only going to get deeper from now on.

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Tracked on January 19, 2004 2:18 PM