Howard Dean’s Tweet, “Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?” isn’t all that surprising. This is the same erratic, bombastic, speculating-out-loud man who flirted with Truther-ism during his presidential campaign.

Dean: There is a report which the president is suppressing evidence for which is a thorough investigation of 9/11.
Diane Rehm, WAMU radio: Why do you think he’s suppressing that report?
Dean: I don’t know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I’ve heard so far, which is nothing more than a theory, I can’t—think it can’t be proved, is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis.

What is surprising is that Dean seems to think this is a good line of attack against Trump, repeating it in an MSNBC interview Tuesday.

KATE SNOW: Why did you go there?
HOWARD DEAN: Well, you can’t make a diagnosis over the television, I would never do that, but he has some interesting — that is actually a signature of people who use cocaine. I’m not suggesting that Trump does…
KATE SNOW: Well, you are suggesting it, actually, in a tweet.
HOWARD DEAN: No, I’m suggesting we think about it.

Also surprising is that for all of the mainstream media’s disdain for Trump, Dean’s getting widespread pushback, and from some unexpected venues. Talking Points Memo called the claim “bizarre,” TMZ said Dean “punched below the belt” and Esquire rapped him on the knuckles, asking “Is Dean merely trying to mimic that kind of armchair conspiracy spinning? Maybe. But at least one of these campaigns has to hold itself to some standard of decency.”

Some of the media’s incredulity no doubt stems from Trump being a teetotaler. Trump never drinks, a decision he attributed to the painful influence of his late brother Fred, an alcoholic.

Finally, if Trump had used cocaine right before Monday night’s presidential debate… wouldn’t he have been a little more energetic?