Posted by Eugene Volokh: I Call "Trend": It takes two incidents, right? (One anecdote is data, two are a trend, three is proof.) I pointed [1]Monday to Howard Dean's remarks about "brain-dead" Republicans, which either means he's saying the voters are brain-dead, or the people for whom the voters voted are brain-dead (even though they beat Dean's party handily at the federal level). Not the savviest political move, it seems to me.
Now a second politician is doing it: My fair city's own District Attorney Steve Cooley, who [2]is quoted as saying that the jurors in the Robert Blake trial were "incredibly stupid." Yup, that will make voters feel really good about you: When you lose your case, you publicly blame citizens like them. Doesn't show a great ability to understand how your audience is going to react to your words, it seems to me. And, curiously, an ability to speak carefully and in a way that doesn't alienate your audience is a pretty important skill for a lawyer. References 1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_03_20-2005_03_26.shtml#1111443876 2. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cooley24mar24,1,7098600.story?ctrack=1&cset=true _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
