And now a word from a technologically-challenged co-guest-blogger--we'll just call him the professor:

Howard Dean's less-than-stellar performance on Larry King Live was sobering, but not to despair, the Republicans should have had an easier time peddling hot dogs to a French chef than they did selling Dubya to a large fraction of the electorate--oh, but wait, this is American political reality I'm talking about here, where Democrats get to spend all of their time trying to make clear where they stand on those issues that conservatives have deemed to be crucial. And so, of course, we get Dean fumbling around ineptly when asked about gay marriage.
Don't get me wrong. In my view, consenting adults should be able to sanctify their domestic unions in whatever way they find it satisfying to do so, and the gov't should not make invidious distinctions among such arrangements in apportioning benefits and privileges BUT . . .
. . . conservatives want gay marriage to be an issue because it divides up the electorate in ways that are favorable to their candidates--given that their strategy for these things is: keep it close, and if you don't actually win it, you can steal it, recall it, impeach it, or redistrict it.
So someone should tell Dean and the other dems that the way to go here is to be crisp and move on. As far as presidential elections are concerned, there's no winning for the dems if the discussion is going to revolve around gay marriage--it calls out conservative troops moreso than it does ours. So the solution? State the obvious: "We should not allow religious prejudices to justify trampling on the civil rights of some of our citizens." And then move on to where we can win: "So, President Bush, are you saying that all Americans don't deserve full health care coverage right now?"