Mine is a statement that takes many forms but usually boils down to the exact same mindset -- namely that the current "villain of the week" is always assumed to be the most primitive simpleton imaginable.

It's not even limited to leaders of foreign countries. Somehow, liberals are incapable of attributing any strategic ability to their enemies.

For example, they will see a corporation get into a legal fight, where it is quite clear that the corporation is morally in the wrong, and they will immediately claim the corporation is going to lose because of some supposed foolishness by the corporation.

If you ask them about their reasoning, it usually becomes clear that they are actually completely clueless about the topic. Confusing patent, copyright and trademark law is a classic in this area.

But they just can't imagine that these corporations, who regularly exploit the system to their advantage, and have highly paid teams of lawyers doing this for them, might know what they are doing, and might very well succeed.

Maybe it's because even the acknowledgement of this possibility is already interpreted as support for the villain. You can't claim that the Russians aren't losing, because if you do, you must obviously support Russia.

Liberals would rather delude themselves with boundless hubris than correctly assess the situation.