While Richard Viguerie keeps blaming John McCain's failed White House bid on the senator's alleged disrespect for "The Base," the political intelligentsia are heaping more scorn on the Republican Party and people like Viguerie in particular. The Economist editors conclude that the defeat in the voting booths happened because "the party lost the battle for brains." Instead of facing up to tough choices and making thoughtful, fact-based arguments, most Republican candidates campaigned with cheap, dumbed-down slogans:

Energy? Just drill, baby, drill. Global warming? Crack a joke about Ozone Al. Immigration? Send the bums home. Torture and Guantanamo? Wear a T-shirt saying you would rather be water-boarding. Ha ha. During the primary debates, three out of ten Republican candidates admitted that they did not believe in evolution.

Ouch. Meanwhile, erudite foreign relations expert Fareed Zakaria was recently interviewed by CNN and made it clear what the problem is:

The Republican Party has become a party bereft of ideas or trapped by the wrong ones. The Reagan-Thatcher revolution of low taxes, deregulation and tight money isn't relevant to the problems of under-regulated financial products, huge deficits and a deepening recession. Add to that the Republican Party's social program is out of tune with an increasingly young, diverse and tolerant electorate.

Well, it might not be quite that bad. After all, there are creative voices of reason scattered about here and there among the Republican ranks, but they are currently getting drowned out by the cacophony of the "grassroots rebels." (!) That'll change one of these days. And I would take issue with Zakaria's contention that the Republicans are less attuned to foreign affairs; after all, it was John McCain who held firm to a strong stand in favor of free trade with Latin America, while Obama pandered to the protectionists.