For those who are sanguine about Howard Dean's performance in Iowa - ie, "it wasn't that bad," "he was just pumping up the faithful," and the like - when freaking Maureen Dowd (Democraticic partisan, party-line lib) says you scared the women and horses, you scared the women and horses, buddy:

Whoa! That was quite the steroid-infused performance. Who's the guy's political consultant - Russell Crowe? He was so in-your-face, smirking his trademark smirk, it was disturbing to think of him in charge of the military. It's a good thing he stopped drinking and started talking about God.

....Howard Dean was also over the top when he uttered the squeal heard round the world. With one guttural primary primal scream, he went from Internet deity to World Wide Wacko and remix victim, with the scream mixed in on Web sites to punctuate Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train."

Yes, Howard, you know you're in trouble when Chris Matthews says you make him look like Jim Lehrer; when David Letterman compares you to a hockey dad; when The New York Post suggests you have a "God complex."

....Dr. Dean's snarly, teeth-baring Iowa finale was so Ross-Perot-scare-off-the-women-and-horses crazy that some Democrats on Capitol Hill, already anxious about the tightly wound doctor, confessed they could not imagine that jabbing finger anywhere near The Button. [NY Times]

Of course Mo also spent half the column saying the president's actions have been just as intemperate, but what do you expect - she's Maureen Dowd. The point is that Conventional Wisdom - the great collective zeitgeist - has turned on Dean: he is absolutely, positively, 1000% toast. He might as well quit now and go somewhere warm because he has no chance of winning the nomination, let alone the presidency.

Next contestant please ...