Once again, we'll tell you, we have not played the gotcha game with Governor Dean (search). Every politician misspeaks and nobody can be consistent all the time. That being said, the big media is after Dean. There's no question about it.

Item: USA Today, front page, big article about how former President Clinton is not a big fan of Dean's and vice versa. This is devastating to somebody trying to secure the Democratic nomination for president.

Item: NBC News broadcast a tape where Dean denigrates the Iowa caucus. And the most damaging of all, ABC News reporting last night that Dean's former security chief beat his wife. And Dean may have ignored warnings about it.

That's not the worst. Sources at ABC News told used us the Dean campaign threatened "World News Tonight," saying if the Jennings broadcast ran the story about the security chief, ABC News would be thrown off the Dean campaign plane. That's insane. That's blowing up a campaign. A politician can't threaten a news organization for reporting a story.

So it is no wonder the poll numbers for Dean are dropping. He's getting hammered by the elite media, does not have time to answer the attacks because he must continue retail politicking in Iowa. Take from it me. I know. If the elite media starts to pound you, you better answer those attacks or they are perceived to be true.

(Story continues below)

Dean's in trouble. Latest Zogby poll shows a four-way dead heat in Iowa: Kerry, Dean, Gephardt and Edwards. Any one of them could win Iowa if the vote were held today.

In New Hampshire, Wesley Clark gaining fast. So is Kerry. Again, the polls could be wrong, but the turmoil surrounding Dean cannot be good news for him. "Talking points" said months ago Governor Dean would not secure the Democratic nomination. I could be wrong, I sometimes am, but I'm sticking with the prediction.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Our pals over at moveon.org, a left-wing Web site, brought Al Gore in to speak about global warming today here in New York City, where it is 8 degrees.

Ridiculous?

Only if Al didn't bring his mittens.

--You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com