Are the Republicans idiots or do they think we are?

After listening to the Republican convention speeches on NPR yesterday, I’m left wondering whether the Republicans are idiots or they just think we are. Speaker after speaker lambasted the federal government, complaining about such issues as ballooning federal spending and “liberal” decisions by the Supreme Court, such as the one permitting rights to the Guantanamo detainees.  They’ve apparently forgotten, or desperately hope that we will, that the president is Republican, and that up until the last couple of years Congress was dominated by Republicans as well.  That ballooning federal spending?  Their fault.  Recent decisions by the Supreme Court?  Last time I checked, the majority of the current Justices were appointed by Republican presidents.  Threats to America overseas?  The Republicans have had 7 years after 9/11 to turn things around; what’s their excuse for why we’re not safer?

I can’t decide which of the following is true:

• The Republicans are idiots and fail to realize that by ranting against the government they’re essentially telling voters not to support those running the government, namely themselves.
• The Republicans think we’re idiots and believe that if they tell us that we should elect a Republican president to clean up the “mess in Washington” we’ll somehow forget they caused the mess in Washington.

Either way they’re doing a miserable job of convincing me I should keep them in charge for 4 more years.  And I used to at least respect McCain.