The Toronto Star reports (and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the report, though I realize that there’s always a danger of reporter error):
One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the “brain-dead” Republicans is that it has a “tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail,” [Howard] Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to the Toronto for two days.
Hey, how’s this for another possible major reason: Might politicians who assume their adversaries — and tens of millions of voters — aren’t just mistaken but “brain-dead” not be very effective politicians?
Might they, for instance, underestimate the other side’s savvy? Or perhaps let their contempt show in unappealing ways?
(Thanks to Opinion Journal for the pointer.)
UPDATE: A reader suggests that maybe Dean was referring to the Republican leadership as brain-dead rather than to the Republican voters. But while the reader thinks this is a mitigating circumstance for Dean, I don’t see that: Surely believing that your political opponents, who had just pretty soundly defeated your party, are “brain-dead” is even more counterproductive than believing the same of the voters.
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