If Dean is really making gains among women in the late-going in New Hampshire, his wife Judy has to be at least partly responsible. I find her winning and utterly charming (even if her ambition to continue practicing medicine as First Lady is totally unrealistic and kind of odd). That Dean has now trotted her out and apparently benefited from it shows how certain political conventions are conventions for a reason. It is important to know what a candidate’s spouse is like and how they get along – it tells us something about him as a person. In this case, Judy raises the prospect that, despite all the evidence we have seen over the last year, Howard Dean is kind of normal. Dean could have used this implicit testimonial on his behalf long ago.